The work, led by researcher Alexander Obeng from the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University (USA), pointed out that passive smoking is a common but often overlooked cause of lead exposure.
The team used a massive dataset from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 2015-2016 and 2017-2018, selecting 2,815 people aged 6-19 who were detailed in their levels of nicotine and a nicotine metabolite called cotinine.
Exposure to cigarette smoke makes children susceptible to high levels of lead exposure - Illustration photo from the Internet
Cotinine concentrations can be considered as a reliable indicator of exposure to tobacco smoke.
According to Medical Xpress, the group of children, adolescents and young adults mentioned above were divided into 3 groups: 6-10 years old, 11-15 years old, 16-19 years old; then divided into groups according to low, moderate and heavy cotinine exposure levels.
Analysis confirmed that blood cotinine concentrations correlated with cotinine concentrations.
Children with moderate exposure to secondhand smoke—meaning average cotinine levels—had lead levels 18 percent higher than those with low exposure. In the severe exposure group, lead levels were 29 percent higher.
By age, children aged 6-10 years old have the highest lead exposure, possibly due to differences in their behaviour and environment. For example, children of this age group may put their hands and other objects in their mouths more frequently, which some previous studies have shown is exposure to “smoky” objects as well as secondhand smoke.
Young children's bodies also appear to absorb lead more easily than older children's.
Previous studies have shown that lead isotopes are among the thousands of toxic substances lurking in cigarette smoke.
Long-term exposure to lead can cause damage to the brain and other organs, which in severe cases can manifest itself through problems with cognitive and motor skills.
Almost everyone is exposed to lead in their daily lives, so the solution is to limit as many sources as possible, for example, not painting the inside of the house with lead-rich paint, removing leaded gasoline from the fuel system... New research shows that limiting children's exposure to secondhand smoke is also a necessary solution.
Source
Comment (0)