Teenagers who are exposed to passive smoking are twice as likely to suffering hearing loss, reveals a study. The new study add to the catalogue of health problems already attributed to passive smoking counting raised risk of asthma, heart disease and lung cancer.
Adolescents exposed to second-hand smoke were more prone to have sensorineural hearing loss, which is usually occurred due to problems with the cochlea, it is the snail-shaped hearing organ of the inner ear. Researchers believe that passive smoking affect the blood supply of that region.
The damage caused by second-hand smoke makes it harder for the sufferer to understand speech and has been associated with poor academic performance and disruptive behavior at school. To analyze the effects of second-hand smoke in teens, a team led by Dr Michael Weitzman, from New York University’s school of medicine studied more than fifteen hundred teens aged twelve to nineteen.
All the study participants were given extensive hearing tests together with blood tests for chemical cotinine, a matter generated when human body breaks down nicotine. The results showed that teens those exposed to second-hand smoke, as measured by cotinine in their blood, were more prone to suffer sensorineural hearing loss in comparison to those not exposed to second-hand smoke.
It is the type of hearing loss that usually tends to occur as one gets older, or among children born with congenital deafness, stated Dr Weitzman. The study was published in journal Archives of Otolaryngology, which deals with head and neck surgery. Yet, less than a fifth of all affected teenagers were not aware that they had a problem with their hearing.
More than half of all children in US are exposed to second-hand smoke, so their finding has huge public health insinuations. Milder hearing loss is not unavoidably noticeable. Thus, simply asking someone whether they think they have hearing loss is insufficient, explained study co-author Dr Anil Lalwani.
The consequences of mild hearing loss are subtle yet serious. Affected children can have difficulty understanding what is being said in the classroom and become distracted. As a result, they may be labeled as troublemakers or misdiagnosed with ADHD, added Dr Weithzman.