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Summary A study shows that kids whose parents smoke are more likely to have hearing problems.
When moms lit up, kids were also almost twice as likely to need surgery for recurrent ear infections or similar problems, researchers reported.The findings come from a combination of 61 past studies. While they cant prove that smoke exposure causes ear infections, researchers suggested that if thats the case, hundreds of thousands of ear infections may be due to parents smoking each year.Its pretty impressive, especially since ear infections cause enormous pain, said Dr. Michael Weitzman, who studies the effects of parental smoking at New York University Medical Center and was not involved in the study.Taken together, the studies showed that kids living with a smoker had a 37 percent higher risk of any middle ear disease, including ear infections and hearing problems -- and a 62 percent higher risk if the household smoker was their mom.The reviews authors, led by Laura Jones of the University of Nottingham in England, calculated that if secondhand smoke does indeed cause ear infections, about 130,000 of close to 2 million middle ear diseases in UK kids in 2008 would be due to parents lighting up.Additionally, 293,000 cases of frequent ear infections in the U.S, out of about 4.5 million annually, would be attributed to secondhand smoke from the home, they reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.Parents smoking has also been linked to asthma and allergy problems in kids, and moms who smoke while pregnant also put their baby at risk for sudden infant death.Weitzman pointed out that the review didnt take into account other consequences of ear infections in kids -- such as parents missed work days, and extra antibiotic prescriptions breeding resistant bacteria.
