How Smokers Physically 'Prime' Their children To Take Up Habit

[beam me up scottie]

How Smokers Physically 'Prime' Their children To Take Up Habit
By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor


CHILDREN become smokers not only by following their parents’ example but also by having their lungs “primed” by smoke in the home, according to a Canadian study.

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The research suggests that parents do more harm than they realise when they smoke in front of their children.

Not only do they set an example, but they also give their children a taste for tobacco that increases their chances of becoming smokers.

A team from Montreal Chest Institute led by Margaret Becklake followed nearly 200 children as they grew up. When they were about 9 years old the team measured levels of cotinine in their saliva.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1736599,00.html

[Horse with no Name]

1. I don't know about that

My parents smoked like fiends while I was growing up and all I got was an aversion to cigarette smoke,chronic bronchitis and asthma.:shrug:

[damntexdem]

3. But we all need to know this:

especially we need the further research to see whether second-hand smoke is addicting children.

[beam me up scottie]

8. I hear it from my co-workers all the time.

They all smoke but keep telling everybody that they know plenty of people who died from lung cancer and they know plenty of people who smoked and lived into their 90's.

I happily smoked for almost twenty years but I never deluded myself into thinking it was anything but bad for me.

And my co-workers can't figure out why their kids are ALWAYS sick.
And I do mean always- colds, allergies(all year around), persistent coughs, upper respiratory infections, etc.

And in the meantime, I'm being forced to breathe in the smoke from close to 100 cigarettes in an 8 hour day.

But they have theories about the dangers of second hand smoke and how it's not as dangerous as everyone says.

I must say, I NEVER expected others to breathe my smoke.

[mcscajun]

2. Both my parents smoked...didn't do a thing for me...

...yes, I tried a cigarette...and in my 20s I smoked a total of one pack of menthols.

Didn't care for it...and Never took up the habit. Haven't picked up a cigarette in nearly 30 years.

[Ian David]

4. Parents who smoke = bad for kids. Parents who are gay NOT bad for kids.

Gee...

[bullimiami]

5. my parents were both heavy smokers growing up

they did quit in their later years.

none of us 3 children are smokers. never have been.
grandfathers smoked too.

wifes parents smoked heavily. wife does not either.

are we exceptions?

[Celebration]

6. Me too

Mom smoked, even during pregnancy. Me= MAJOR AVERSION. However we had a kind of big airy house growing up, and I could get away from the smoke. That may have made the difference. Oh, she quit later when she had to come visit me in a tiny NY apartment and she knew we would make her go outside. Man I really feel for kids with smoking parents who live in airtight homes.

[Clark2008]

7. Much ado about nothing.

I still think that way too many ills of the body are blamed on smoking rather than on the genetics that likely cause most of them.

(And, I'm not saying smoking is OK or good for you, just that's it's not the cause of every friggin' disease out there).

[bemildred]

9. Correlation is not causation.

Smoking is a filthy habit that is bad for you,
but these researchers are not adding much to that.

[NNadir]

10. The reason I never smoked is my father was sick from it when I was born.

My whole life I remember him coughing, trying to quit, and failing at it.

It killed him ultimately, as we all knew it would.

The funny thing is that while I was quite tolerant of cigarette smoke while he still lived, I am now enormously sensitive to it. I can't stand the smell of even a person who smoked hours before.

[beam me up scottie]

11. That is too bad.

I'm sorry about your dad.

I finally quit when a friend of mine dragged me to the hospital every chance she could to visit her father as he lay dying from emphysema.

I may not have much choice about how I leave this place, but if I can in any way, prevent suffering like that...