Studies Smoking mothers increase the risk of COPD in their children

Children of heavily smoking mothers are three times more likely to have COPD
Smoking is unhealthy and also harms the health of passive smokers, has long been known. In recent years, more and more campaigns have been launched to protect nonsmokers from passive intake of cigarette smoke. Scientists from the University of Melbourne have now found that mothers who smoke heavily increase their children's risk of developing a chronic lung disease, at worst three times as much.

In general, parents should not smoke near their children to prevent any possible complications. Especially mothers who smoke heavily increase the likelihood that their child will develop chronic lung disease later in life, researchers from the University of Melbourne said during an investigation. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Respirology".

COPD by smoking mothers. Picture: highwaystarz - fotolia

Smoking cigarettes is the most common reason for COPD
Smoking harms our health. But also non-smokers are endangered by passive smoke. Particularly threatened are our children. Scientists now found that children of heavily smoking mothers are three times more likely to develop chronic lung disease. If mothers smoke more than twenty cigarettes a day, their children may later develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), say the doctors. COPD is a progressive disease that makes breathing difficult. Cigarette smoking is by far the most common reason why people get COPD. Even if they do not smoke themselves, they can get such a disease by living with a smoker, the researchers warn.

Long-term study examines about 6,000 subjects
For the current study, the scientists examined the data of about 6,000 adults. These had participated in a long-term study, which began in 1968, the researchers report. The data collection was carried out again in 2004. Almost 40 percent of all participants lived with a smoking mother and 17 percent of the subjects reported that their mother was a heavy smoker. About two-thirds of the participants had already had experience with asthma. Four out of ten subjects stated that they had never smoked themselves. The participants underwent a lung function test between the year 2007 and the year 2008, explain the physicians.

Smoking mothers harm children's growing lungs
When people grew up with a heavily smoking mother, they were three times more susceptible to pulmonary impairment associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The children of moderate smokers who smoked less than twenty cigarettes a day had a lower risk of developing such a disease, explain the physicians. These results were not surprising for us, says lead author Dr. Jennifer Perret from the University of Melbourne. Smoking can lead to deficits in lung function later in life. Thus, it was not unexpected that smoking mothers also negatively affected the growing lungs of their children.

Every year, countless people die as a result of COPD
According to the researchers, COPD is the third leading cause of death in the United States. More than 15 million people have been diagnosed with COPD, but the real numbers are probably much higher, as many people do not know they are affected by the disease, say the experts. There may be a combined effect between smoking and other environmental factors associated with the development of COPD. So we should avoid dusty or polluted environments, and not smoke at all or as little as possible, adds Dr. Perret added. (As)