Some kids show dependence from second-hand smoke

MONCTON, N.B.—A joint study by eight Canadian institutions has found that five percent of children who are exposed to second-hand smoke have symptoms of nicotine dependence.
A University of Moncton researcher and lead author of the report says those results help support growing calls for provincial bans on smoking in vehicles and homes if children are present.

“This simply brings more support to those [laws],” Mathieu Belanger said yesterday. “What we were trying to do here was figure out why people are deciding to smoke.
“We already knew parents who smoke and peer pressure were factors,” he noted. “Here we are identifying a potential new reason—development of dependency.”
Belanger said the findings were surprising.
“In most studies, five percent sounds kind of small, but in this case, because the kids had never smoked themselves, the numbers sound quite a bit large,” he remarked. “Prior to our study, we would have expected that number to be around zero percent.”
More than 1,400 Montreal-area school children, aged 10-12, who have never smoked but had been exposed to it second-hand, were involved in the study.
Belanger said five percent had symptoms ranging from a temptation to want to smoke, to having cravings or feeling addicted to nicotine.
The study aimed to analyze why people begin to smoke—part of which now appears to be a dependency without having started themselves.
Findings of the study are published in the September edition of the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Chris Collins, chairman of the New Brunswick legislature’s wellness committee, said in July the government should extend the province’s smoking ban to vehicles containing children.
New Brunswick Health minister Mike Murphy has since said the development of a health council would help determine the province’s position on smoking in vehicle when children are present. That committee has since been formed.
“This study, I think, speaks to the needs to better inform people on the current state of tobacco use and what are risks,” said Stephane Robichaud, chief executive officer of the New Brunswick Health Council.
“I can very well see tobacco [use], be it by adults or kids, will likely come up as something we will need to tackle,” he added.