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Secondhand smoke linked to hearing loss in teens
Medpage Today
Smoke gets in your ears — if you’re a teen exposed to secondhand smoke — and is associated with hearing loss, a large study suggested.
Exposed adolescents were 1.83 times more likely to experience low-frequency hearing loss (95% CI 1.08 to 3.41) than those who had no exposure, according to Anil K. Lalwani, MD, and colleagues from New York University in New York City.
And the greatest risk for hearing loss — a 2.72-fold increase (95% CI 1.46 to 5.06) — was in those with the highest levels of exposure as determined by serum cotinine levels, Lalwani’s group reported in the July Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
The list of potentially harmful outcomes associated with exposure to secondhand smoke continues to grow, from low birth weight to behavioral and cognitive problems and respiratory tract infections — and more than half of U.S. children are exposed.
