Study: Kids’ Teeth May Be Harmed By Secondhand Smoke Exposure In Infancy

HealthDay (10/22, Reinberg) reports a Japanese study shows “children exposed to secondhand smoke at 4 months of age may be at risk for tooth decay by age 3.” Lead researcher Dr. Koji Kawakami, chairman of pharmacoepidemiology and clinical research management at Kyoto University, said, “Secondhand smoke is one of the major public health problems still unsolved.” The findings were published in the British Medical Journal.

        The Medical Daily (10/22, Cara) reports that “to date, there has been a steady stream of studies finding a moderate to weak connection between early secondhand smoke exposure and later tooth decay, though as the researchers explained, much of this research has involved studying a population at any one given point in time (a cross-sectional study) rather than following a group of people over time (a cohort study).”

        The Guardian (UK) (10/21, Campbell) reports “the research was carried out in Kobe, where at least one person smoked in 55% of the households containing children.”