What are the dangers of secondhand smoke to children?

Secondhand smoke is a term that we often hear nowadays. We all know that secondhand smoke is very harmful to the body, especially for children, it can affect their respiratory system, heart, hearing, etc.

Harm of secondhand smoke 1: Damage to the baby's heart

The toxic substances produced when cigarettes burn can destroy the high-density cholesterol (HDL) in the human body, which can effectively prevent heart disease. Scientific research has shown that babies who grow up in a secondhand smoke environment for a long time have lower levels of high-density cholesterol in their bodies than other children. Toxins in secondhand smoke can more easily affect a child's heart rate regulation when HDL levels are low.

Harm of secondhand smoke 2: murder baby's respiratory system

The air quality in a secondhand smoke environment is very poor. It will deprive the baby of the healthy oxygen needed for breathing, thereby interfering with the development of the baby's brain respiratory center. In the case of long-term hypoxia, the human body will compensate by continuously producing "diphosphoglycerate", which can enhance oxygen delivery, but it also increases the risk of children developing respiratory diseases. Scientific research shows that children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, asthma, otitis media, bronchitis, sinusitis and other diseases.

The third harm of secondhand smoke: causing hearing impairment in babies

When cigarettes burn, they can produce more than 4,000 toxic substances, which have a huge irritating effect on the baby's middle ear mucosa, and can cause the mucus secreted by the middle ear mucosa to increase and thicken, and the Eustachian tube to be blocked, thereby causing fluid accumulation in the middle ear and inducing otitis media. Over time, the eardrum will become perforated, thickened, calcified, adhered, and invaginated, causing hearing loss and eventually conductive deafness. The baby will lose the ability to hear the world for life.

Secondhand smoke harm 4: Increase the sudden death rate of infants

An interdisciplinary study involving 17 German universities and two local research institutes previously showed that if a family member has a smoking habit and the smoking frequency reaches 20 cigarettes per day, the sudden death rate of the baby is 5 times higher than the average. If the breastfeeding mother has the habit of smoking, the baby's sudden death rate will be higher.

Harm of secondhand smoke 5: Turning breast milk into a "drug"

If a mother who is still breastfeeding is exposed to second-hand smoke for a long time, the nicotine content in her breast milk will increase three times than normal, and the baby's sucking of breast milk is equivalent to smoking. In addition, experts have also found that breastfeeding mothers who are exposed to second-hand smoke have fewer lactation reflexes than normal mothers and have poorer milk quality, which will reduce milk supply and cause the baby to be weaned prematurely.