Harmful effects of tobacco in children
Today, more than 10 % of children under 14 are exposed daily to tobacco smoke in their homes. This is a serious problem since they are especially vulnerable, much more than adults. Let’s see what are the effects of tobacco in children.
Tobacco in pregnancy
Tobacco consumption is very harmful during pregnancy. So is the mother’s exposure to smoke in smoking environments, but much more direct consumption. On the one hand, tobacco affects the woman reducing her fertility and increasing the risk of abortion.
On the other hand, tobacco consumption during pregnancy is associated with low weight babies, premature births, increased malformations, risk of sudden death, etc. In short, smoking during pregnancy is an unnecessary and avoidable risk for the embryo. The smoking woman must leave the habit before becoming pregnant, or as soon as she can. It is also recommended that the father do it, since the free spaces of smoke will be favored and the mother will be helped not to fall back into the habit.
In the case of infant mothers, it is convenient to emphasize that tobacco nicotine can also pass to the child through breast milk, exposing the infant to its toxic effects.
The effects of tobacco on children
Passive smoking is exposure to tobacco smoke by non -smoking people. Smoke environments make us continually inhale toxic and highly harmful health substances, which are liberated in the air in tobacco smoke.
In children, passive smoking has mainly associated with an increase in respiratory diseases such as asthma or pneumonia, as well as an increase in otitis incidence. Specifically, we can say that passive smoking can cause:
- Acute respiratory diseases. Tobacco smoke can cause up to 30% more infections such as pneumonia, bronchitis and bronchiolitis.
- Increased respiratory symptoms, such as sore and ears, cough, etc. Exposure to tobacco smoke irritates mucous membranes. It can also produce ancient in the eyes and nose.
- Asthma and aggravation of asthmatic symptoms. Tobacco smoke increases the frequency of asthmatic attacks by up to 20%.
- Increased risk of lung cancer.
- Increased risk of heart problems.
Children are especially vulnerable to tobacco smoke. His organism is not yet mature at all and cannot combat the damage of toxic toxic agents like an adult’s body. In addition, the number of breaths per minute is higher than that of adults.
How to prevent children from becoming smokers?
The risk of a child becoming a smoker in the future increases if her parents are smokers. When a child has always lived at home the habit of tobacco as a reference pattern, she is more likely to become an active smoker.
In fact, the age of onset in smoking is increasing. In these cases, tobacco has more serious effects than adults:
- Can cause growth and development delay.
- Increases the risk of diabetes and obesity.
- Predisposes to behavior alterations, such as hyperactivity or attention deficit.
- Some studies also ensure that smokers are more likely to consume alcohol and other drugs and incur risky sexual behaviors.
- Another important fact to highlight is that, the earlier a person begins to smoke, the more risk he has for her health and the more difficult it is that he can abandon the habit.
Therefore, we must prevent our home and our environments from being spaces full of smoke and toxic. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco is the main cause of disease, disability and avoidable death in the world. It is harmful to our health, but also for that of our children, which are especially vulnerable to harmful substances.
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