What happens to the health of a child exposed to secondhand smoke (even heated tobacco)

Passive smoking is considered a harmful factor for the health of non-smokers, especially that of children. A concept that we know well but until now has remained linked only to “traditional” cigarettes. Now one research published in the scientific journal Environmental Pollution highlighted how even «heat-not-burn» (HNBC) cigarettes, those which in various ways and with different devices put on the market by various multinationals heat tobacco without burning it, could negatively affect the cardiovascular health of children and exposed adolescents.

The study, which saw the collaboration between Sapienza University of Rome, Irccs Neuromed of Pozzilli (IS) and Mediterranea Cardiocentro of Naples, examined three groups of children and adolescents aged between 2 and 18 years, divided according toexposure to smoke that they could have in their family: not exposed to any type of smoke, exposed to traditional smoke, exposed to heated tobacco smoke. A series of tests, performed on blood samples and instrumental tests, then measured the oxidative stressthe endothelial function (a key indicator of blood vessel health) andactivation of platelets (a risk factor for blood clot formation).

«The most important data that emerged from our research – explain the authors, Lorenzo Loffredo and Anna Maria Zicari of Sapienza and Roberto Carnevale, active at both Sapienza and Neuromed – is that there are no significant differences between traditional cigarette smoking and heated tobacco smoke. In both cases, the children and adolescents examined presented, compared to those not exposed to any type of smoke, higher oxidative stress, greater platelet activation and an alteration of endothelial function and therefore a greater cardiovascular risk».

These results, the authors explain, show how «even new generation cigarettes, universally considered less harmful than traditional cigarettes, can be configured as a potential danger to the health of those around smokers, especially younger ones. The final objective must therefore remain that of encouraging the cessation of smoking in all its forms and its surrogates, including zero tolerance towards passive smoking of any type”.

According to Doxa data for the ISS in Italy smokers are the 20.5% of the population over 15 years old (10.5 million people, 25.1% of men and 16.3% of women) but in the last year the average number of cigarettes smoked has increased, 12.2 cigarettes per day and a quarter of smokers exceeds 20. That of latest generation devices that heat tobacco and of which the displays of authorized retailers are overflowing with types, tastes and ranges of every kind, a sign that they constitute a very popular trend (14% of smokers smoke them) which has more than tripled in just one year after a similar boom recorded between the 2019 and 2022.

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