Smoking can have an effect on bone formation in young people, according to experts. “If youths begin smoking in school and college, it can hamper bone deposition, hence stunt bone growth. This can lead to bone degeneration much earlier in life than non-smokers,” said Dr Maninder Singh, an orthopaedic surgeon, who heads the Foot and Ankle Division at Indian Spinal Injuries Hospital, New Delhi.
“Peak bone formation, which is the maximum build up of bone in the skeletal mass, happens between 20 and 25. This is the point at which the bones are at their highest strength and density. look at growing bones in children and young adults as a bone bank.
You are adding to the bank with various factors, like diet, exercise and sun exposure. This mainly takes place up to the 20s. After this, there tends to be more withdrawals on the bone bank, in terms of depletion. However, smoking inhibits bone deposition, and so overall skeletal strength is reduced. Besides, in case of a fracture, there is an impact on bone healing-it may not be as efficient as a non-smoker,” he said.
Smoking decreases calcium absorption and reduces levels of vitamin D in the blood stream (the vitamin that facilitates bone building). Besides, the constriction of blood vessels that takes place in smokers, decreases blood supply, hence nutrition to the bone is compromised, hampering skeletal health, said experts. Smoking causes the circulation of free radicals in the body, killing bone-building cells. It also raises cortizol that adversely affects bones, said experts, adding that the wrist and the neck of the femur are most prone to injuries, making a child more vulnerable to playground injuries.
Worldwide, 82,000 to 99,000 young people start smoking every day, as per World Health Organisation statistics. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey, of which India is a part, is a school-based survey conducted in 137 countries, indicates that 46.8 per cent of children who did not smoke but were exposed to cigarette smoke within the home and 47.8 per cent were exposed outside the home.
In India, the survey produced representational data that implied 4.4 per cent of children in India between 13 and 15 years smoked cigarettes.