Second-hand smoke tied to teens’ hearing loss

Second-hand smoke is tied to a range of health problems in kids, from respiratory infections to behavioural problems.

NEW YORK:

Teens who are exposed to second-hand smoke may be at a higher risk of hearing loss, researchers claim. Although the findings cannot prove that second-hand smoke definitely causes hearing loss, the link is just one more reason to make sure that non-smokers, especially kids, are protected from cigarette smoke.

Second-hand smoke has been tied to a range of health problems in kids, from respiratory infections to behavioural problems, although there is still no ironclad proof that smoke is at the root of all of these problems.

Dr Anil Lalwani and his colleagues thought tobacco smoke might have an effect on the blood flow in kids’ inner ear, which is important for hearing. They analysed data from a US national health survey involving about 1,500 adolescents between the ages 12 and 19. All of those kids had hearing tests in both ears to see if they had any trouble picking up on sounds at different pitches. Researchers also tested their blood for levels of cotinine — which forms when the nicotine from cigarette smoke breaks down.

Teens whose cotinine levels told researchers they spent a lot of time around smokers were more likely to have hearing loss than those without exposure to cigarette smoke. About 12 per cent of the exposed kids had mild to severe hearing loss in one ear, compared to less than eight per cent of kids without smoke exposure.

“It’s kind of surprising,” said Dr Joseph DiFranza, who has studied second-hand smoke at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worchester. “We already knew that passive smoking is bad for children. This adds to the reasons to make sure kids aren’t exposed to second-hand smoke.”

Meanwhile, Lalwani also said it will be interesting to find out if hearing loss in kids exposed to second-hand smoke could also explain some of the other problems seen in these kids, such as behavioural issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2011.