Passive smoke raising risk of heart disease among students

More than 50% of higher secondary school students in Ernakulam district who took part in a survey admitted that they were exposed to second-hand smoke at home, schools, and public places.

The students were unable to escape passive smoke and almost 15.2% of them have chronic respiratory disease, according to the survey.

This is despite several government initiatives, including legislation, to reduce smoking. Though the Kochi corporation has started a drive to make Kochi smoking-free people, including school children, continue to be exposed to second-hand smoking making them vulnerable to respiratory infections, ischemic heart diseases, lung cancer and asthma.

According to the study, "Prevalence of exposure to second-hand smoke among higher secondary school students in Ernakulam district," published in the Journal of Pharmacy and BioAllied Sciences in 2017, a majority of students (56 %) admitted that they were exposed to cigarette smoking in the past one week in public spaces and 10.2 % in closed public places. While 23.2 % students were exposed to second-hand smoke from a family member, another 18.8 % they encountered tobacco smoke when their friends smoked.

"Non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke have an increased risk of developing heart diseases at least by 25%, stroke by 20%, and lung cancer by 20%," said Dr PS Rakesh, department of community medicine, AIMS and author of the study.

The prevalence of chronic respiratory disease was 15.2% among children who said they were exposed to second-hand smoke while it was just about 8.16% among the students in the other group. Students exposed to smoke were found to have 2.16 times higher probability of getting a chronic respiratory disease. The survey was conducted randomly among higher secondary school children to help know the effects of recent tobacco control interventions and to plan further strategies.

"The current study points out that despite many efforts by government and in spite of its high literacy and better health-care systems, tobacco problem still exists in the community. The survey points to the inadequate enforcement of smoking ban in the public places in the state," said Dr Rakesh.

He added that reducing exposure to second-hand smoke among school children requires interventions to decrease tobacco use initiation, to promote tobacco cessation and to control smoking in public places.

Source: Times of India