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Tests showing nicotine levels in the blood of preschoolers could help protect them and quell their parents’ harmful behavior, Israeli researchers say.
Tel Aviv University public health experts suggest policymakers around the world are considering the idea of testing preschoolers, after conducting a study that highlighted how prone children of smokers are second-hand smoke.
While the study found high levels of nicotine for most children of smokers, it also found that simply testing children, without even informing families of the results, was enough to apparently change parents’ behaviors. .
“If children are tested for nicotine at a young age, the results could shape parental behavior,” Professor Laura Rosen, who led the study of 140 families, told The Times of Israel. “The results showing that a child has nicotine in their body could make parents think once, twice and possibly 20 times before they smoke around their children, whether in the house or on the porch.”
Her study, published in a peer-reviewed journal article in May, found that some seven in ten participants – children from Israeli households where a parent smokes – had nicotine deep in their hair.
“This is a biomarker that shows children experience the cumulative effects of secondhand smoke,” Rosen said, calling the finding “alarming.”
“We tested the inner hair shaft which reflects what is going on in the blood,” she added. “It is not just a matter of smoke landing on the hair during a short encounter, but rather reflects the fact that these children have absorbed carcinogens from the parents’ smoke into their blood for several months.”
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, in Israel 52% of Arab children and 25% of Jewish children are exposed to tobacco smoke by the age of two months.
One of the biggest barriers to protecting children from secondhand smoke is that parents often deny its impact, said Rosen, founder of the Tobacco Control Research Forum at her university. She added that they tend to underestimate the extent of distance and precautions required when smoking in order to protect children.
Illustrative photo of a woman smoking a cigarette outside an Israeli cafe. (Nati Shohat / Flash90)
She argued that if international health authorities introduced a routine nicotine test for preschoolers, it could be a game-changer in terms of parental conduct.
“Let’s test four-year-olds for nicotine because parents who smoke just don’t understand that smoke really hits their children,” she said. “But we believe that once they see it clearly, many will change their behavior.”
She noted that in cases where high levels of nicotine are found, steps could be taken to protect children.
“It can allow professionals to empower them to protect children, such as taking a shower and brushing their teeth after smoking,” he said. “It can also lead parents who smoke to use strategies to help them when they need to be with children but are craving nicotine, such as chewing nicotine gum instead of smoking cigarettes. cigarettes for those times. “
The study found that nicotine levels found in children fell both for an intervention group, in which parents received results and comprehensive training to prevent children from smoking, and for a control group. in which the children were tested, but the parents did not receive the results and training until the end of the study.
“In both groups, when we tested the children for the second time, after six months both groups had improved – there was a statistically significant reduction in nicotine exposure in the children,” a- she declared.
“We learn from this that the results aside, just knowing that children are being tested for nicotine and that this issue is on the family’s agenda can have an impact. This process of gathering evidence about what is going on in their children’s bodies is something that can really get parents thinking and questioning their behavior.
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