You smoke, and your child gets hooked

A study has found that children with a smoker in the family show signs of nicotine dependence, so parents should not smoke around their children.

An earlier study showed that children exposed to tobacco smoke at home or in the car have nicotine and its breakdown products in their urine, blood and hair, and that children with high levels of cotinine (a breakdown product of nicotine) in their saliva are more likely to start smoking within two years.

The new study tested 1,488 children aged 10 to 12 who had never smoked. The best way to detect nicotine dependence is to measure symptoms such as craving for cigarettes and nicotine withdrawal. Sixty-five children, about 5%, had at least one symptom of nicotine dependence. The most common were feeling mentally and physically addicted, finding it hard to be around smokers without smoking, and feeling a need for cigarettes.

The more the child was exposed to smoke, the more symptoms they had. So nicotine dependence in children of smoking families is not only psychological but physical too.

So if you smoke, don't be shocked to find your ten-year-old smoking in the bathroom: the child has both psychological and physical reasons to do so. The study was published in the journal Addictive Behaviors in September 2008.