A new scientific study proved that families in which only the fathers smoke are more exposed to the effects of nicotine, the active substance in tobacco, than similar ones, where adults do not smoke at all, or where the father takes it outside. The survey, published in the November 15th issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, was conducted by Goyang National Center scientist, Dr. Moon-Woo Seong, and his team.

 

The researchers analyzed 63 families, in which only the fathers smoked, and women were either pregnant, or had small children. The subjects were split into three groups, so as to measure the effects of nicotine. One group, 27 families large, had fathers who smoked indoors, the second group, with the same size, featured non-smoking parents, while 9 families had fathers who smoked outdoors.

 

"Our findings, indicate that paternal smoking inside the home leads to significant fetal and maternal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. We also found that paternal smoking outside the home helpfully reduces levels of environmental tobacco smoke to which the smoker's wife and her fetus are exposed," says the study. "Outside smoking substantially reduces maternal and fetal exposure."

 

The scientists measured the levels of nicotine in the hair of the small children in the study, so as to compare them, and found that kids belonging to the group that had fathers smoking indoors exhibited much large concentrations of the chemical than children in both other groups.

 

A logical conclusion would be for smoking parents to do it outside the house, or on the balcony, and avoid exposing their children to nicotine and cotinine, as these can prompt a series of problems for the young ones, later on in life. It would be ideal for both parents not to smoke at all, thus preserving their own health as well. The team said that they would continue investigations on the matter, with bigger groups, so as to get more conclusive results.