Involuntary Smoking and Incidence of Respiratory Illness During the First Year of Life

Abstract

A prospective study of 1,144 infants and their families was performed. Smoking and family histories were evaluated with respect to the incidence of lower respiratory disease during the first year of life. It was found that (1) tracheitis and bronchitis occurred significantly more frequently in infants exposed to cigarette smoke in the home, (2) maternal smoking imposed greater risks upon the infant than paternal smoking, (3) occurrence of neither tracheitis nor bronchitis showed a consistent relationship to the number of cigarettes smoked, (4) a family history that was positive for respiratory illness (chronic cough or bronchitis) significantly influenced the incidence of bronchitis, (5) too few cases of laryngitis and pneumonia were seen to warrant any opinions regarding the adverse influence of either smoking or a family history that was positive for respiratory illness, and (6) occurrence of bronchiolitis was not affected by the presence of a smoker nor influenced by a family history that was positive for respiratory illness. It is concluded that passive smoking is dangerous to the health of infants and that infants born to families with a history that is positive for respiratory illness (chronic cough or bronchitis) are at risk of developing bronchitis.

The Mortality Risk from Main Pathologies Due to Passive Smoking is not Achieved by the Overwhelming Majority of Nuclear Workers in All Periods of Employment

“…There were 20 prospective cohort studies, 1 panel (short-term cohort) study, 1 cohort study carried out through record linkage, 2 controlled trials, 4 case-control studies, and 6 prevalence surveys of schoolchildren that asked parents about past illnesses. Seven studies combined all lower respiratory diagnoses (Gardner et al 1984;Ferris et al 1985;Pedreira et al 1985;Wright et al 1991;Forastiere et al 1992;Marbury et al 1996;Richards et al 1996), six contributed information on bronchitis and pneumonia (Leeder et al 1976;Fergusson and Horwood 1985;Chen et al 1988a;Håkansson and Carlsson 1992;Gergen et al 1998;Nuesslein et al 1999), and two focused on illnesses diagnosed as bronchiolitis (McConnochie and Roghmann 1986b;Hayes et al 1989). Twenty-three studies focused specifically on illnesses associated with wheeze (Fergusson and Horwood 1985;Bisgaard et al 1987;Chen et al 1988a;Burr et al 1989;Lucas et al 1990;Halken et al 1991;Arshad et al 1993;Tager et al 1993;Elder et al 1996;Margolis et al 1997;Nafstad et al 1997;Baker et al 1998;Gergen et al 1998;Chen and Millar 1999;Dezateaux et al 1999;Gold et al 1999;Karaman et al 1999;Mrazek et al 1999;Rusconi et al 1999;Yau et al 1999;…”

“…Some studies assessed the effects of parental smoking on specifically diagnosed illnesses. One study addressed tracheitis and bronchitis (Pedreira et al 1985), another examined wheeze and pneumonia but not bronchitis or bronchiolitis (Marbury et al 1996), and the NHANES III study found stronger effects for chronic bronchitis, asthma, and wheeze than for pneumonia (Gergen et al 1998). One cohort study explicitly distinguished between LRIs with and without wheeze (Wright et al 1991).…”

Minority rights or public health? The smoky logic of Hadaway and Beyerstein.

“…They found a dose/response relationship, in which children of the heaviest smokers also had the highest rate of hospital admissions for lower respiratory tract illnesses and bronchitis. In a prospective study of over 1,100 infants, Pedreira, Guandolo, Feroli, Mella, and Weiss (1985) found that maternal smoking was more closely associated with respiratory illness in infants than was paternal smoking, suggesting that simply total exposure (which would be expected to be higher with mothers) is an important factor. Lung function was also more severely impaired in children when both parents smoked than when only one did so.…”