Second hand tobacco exposure not only increases severity of asthma attacks, respiratory infections, cancer, sudden infant death syndrome and behavioral problems among kids but also heavy metals such as lead in children’s saliva. This could cause biological malfunctioning, leading to health and behavioural problems, warned researchers at the Pennsylvania State University, US, after they measured cotinine levels, along with metals, in children’s saliva.
Cotinine, a nicotine metabolite present in children’s blood or saliva, is measured to assess their exposure to tobacco smoke, or their environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).
The researchers also said that metals have also been found in vapours of common products used for vaping, cast as a healthier alternative to tobacco-based products, indicating that these products too are capable of being transmitted as second- and third-hand smoke.
A total 238 (7.5 years of age and under) out of 1,300 children born in 2003 and 2004 and growing up in the rural areas of Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the US, originally recruited for childhood developmental studies, were investigated for the study published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.
Lead researcher Lisa Gatzke-Kopp and her team found significant associations between salivary cotinine and salivary levels of essential trace metals such as copper and zinc and of non-essential metals such as lead. Metals such as copper and zinc in trace amounts are necessary for healthy bone development and general metabolism in humans.
Children with higher levels of cotinine were also found to have higher levels of heavy metals in their saliva.
“We were surprised by the levels of heavy metals in children at this age,” said Gatzke-Kopp, professor of human development and family studies.
“Our findings suggest that environmental tobacco smoke exposure may be one source of increased children’s exposure to heavy metals,” she said.
“Tobacco smoke contains thousands of chemical compounds, most of which are harmful to humans,” said Gatzke-Kopp.