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Smoke signals: Researchers look at teens, environmental tobacco smoke |
| By
Deanna Woolf |
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Jul 21, 2005 |
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Nationwide, the smoking rate in adults is about 23 percent, according to a 2004 U.S. health report from the Centers for Disease Control. "So, by probability, one in four children is likely to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke," Dr. James Price said.
Imagine his surprise when he and Dr. Timothy Jordan surveyed 574 adolescents in Toledo and found out that 54 percent had been exposed to tobacco smoke in the previous week. More than 30 percent had been exposed to three hours or more of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), commonly referred to as second-hand smoke.
These are just two of the findings from the "Adolescent Exposure to and Perceptions of Environmental Tobacco Smoke" study that was released in the May issue of the Journal of School Health. Price, professor, and Jordan, assistant professor, and Sapna Shah, research assistant of the UT public health and rehabilitation department collaborated on the study with UT alum Dr. Joseph Dake of Wayne State University.
The researchers were funded via the Ohio Tobacco Youth Prevention and Cessation Foundation to look at what adolescents think about ETS and measure their exposure. Jordan explained they designed a survey for students and administered it in fall 2004. "We used eight schools, five of which were public. All of them were in the city of Toledo," he explained. They viewed the schools' diverse populations as an asset to their study. "A lot of tobacco research is based on Caucasian samples — here we were able to get almost 40 percent of responders being African-American students," Jordan said.
Price was especially concerned about the high levels of ETS exposure found among students, citing its numerous health hazards. "There is a 9 percent decrease in HDL — the good cholesterol — levels in the blood of smokers," he began. "ETS exposure results in a 6 percent decrease in HDL levels. That's almost two-thirds the damage of smoking! My concern is young people do not appreciate the changes in blood chemistry levels — heart disease is down the road. Thirty percent of adolescents [in the study] didn't believe there were any health effects from ETS exposure."
Jordan also was surprised that 30 percent of students were exposed to ETS for three hours or more at school during the previous week. "Almost all schools have anti-smoking policies," he said, leaving one to wonder how the exposure occurs.
Students' opinions about ETS also intrigued the researchers. "Twenty-eight percent said they don't go to certain businesses because of smoke," Jordan stated. "The adolescents have the spending power to affect businesses," Price added. The two also found strong support, at 69 percent, for the government being involved in making laws to protect employees. But every time the word "bar" was included in a survey question, support dwindled for ETS legislation. "I think there is an American inbred feeling of trampling on rights. Yet employees may not be able to get a job elsewhere," Jordan said.
They hope the study's results will spur people to do something about adolescent ETS exposure. "We're trying to make educators aware to change students' beliefs," Price stated. "School health educators need to incorporate more information on ETS effects into their curriculum," Jordan said.
Jordan, Price and Dake have five additional tobacco research studies under review with scientific journals. They have investigated how well health-care practioners — nurse-midwives, pediatricians, family practice physicians and obstetrician-gynecologists — implement best practices of smoking cessation with their patients and to what degree pediatricians and obstetrician-gynecologists recommend or prescribe nicotine replacement therapy.
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