Childhood Exposure to Secondhand Smoke Raises Risk of Emphysema

Adults who were exposed to secondhand smoke as children are more likely to have developed emphysema-like lung changes by late middle age, and also were more likely to have had childhood asthma, Health News reported Dec. 30.

Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health used CT scans to examine lung changes among 1,781 healthy, non-smoking adults, about half of whom had lived with at least one smoking adult during childhood. The study found that the subjects exposed to secondhand smoke as children were more likely to have lung changes consistent with development of early emphysema. Lung changes were even more profound for those who had lived with two smokers while growing up.

“We were able to detect a difference on CT scans between the lungs of participants who lived with a smoker as a child and those who did not,” said researcher Gina Lovasi. “Some known harmful effects of tobacco smoke are short term, and this new research suggests that effects of tobacco smoke on the lungs may also persist for decades.”

Lovasi said the associations between secondhand smoke and lung damage were small, however, and would need to be replicated.

The study was published in the Jan. 1, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.