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Just say no Smoking aggravates asthma, report notes Children and teens who smoke cigarettes have nearly four times the risk of developing asthma in their teens compared to children and teens who do not smoke, researchers at USC report. A professor and lead researcher, Dr. Frank Gilliland, also found that children who were exposed to cigarette smoke in their mothers' wombs have even higher risks of developing asthma, almost nine times the risk of those who didn't smoke. Their results appeared in November in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "We've been studying this group of children long enough that now some of them have started smoking," Gilliland said in a statement. "We found that teens who started smoking have a four times higher risk of developing asthma compared to teens who don't smoke. But if those same teenagers were also exposed to tobacco smoke before they were born, they get more than a double whammy - nine times the risk of getting asthma." Evidence linking smoking and the development of asthma had been mixed. By studying adolescents, who had a shorter history of smoking, the researchers were able to make a clearer connection. A group of 2,609 children and adolescents who were between the ages of 8 to 15, were studied. At the start, none had a prior history of asthma or wheezing. |
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