Children, grandchildren of parents exposed to secondhand smoke more likely to get asthma: Study

A recent study found children are more likely to suffer from asthma if their parents inhaled secondhand tobacco smoke in their childhood or were active smokers themselves.

In the study, which was published in the European Respiratory Journal, the international team of scientists also said that the impact of smoking and the resultant respiratory problems can be found over the next two generations in a phenomenon called “transgenerational effect”.

The team included several researchers from United Kingdom,Australia and Sri Lanka.

“We found that the risk of non-allergic asthma in children increases by 59% if their fathers were exposed to secondhand smoke in childhood, compared to children whose fathers were not exposed."

“The risk was even higher, at 72%, if the fathers were exposed to secondhand smoke and went on to smoke themselves,” said Jiacheng Liu, from Melbourne University, told The Guardian.

Dr Dinh Bui, co-author of the study, believes that the study will be important in raising awareness regarding the harmful impacts of the smoking and can even result in "real change".

“Our findings show how the damage caused by smoking can have an impact not only on smokers but also their children and grandchildren,” she said while explaining the reasons behind the study.

“Paternal smoke exposure before the age of 15 years is a major risk factor for non-allergic asthma.”

The study mentioned a number of cases where smoking ended up altering epigenetic changes and that was stated to be the most likely reasons behind the increase risks of asthma in future generations.