Smoking: Children's blood pressure risk

PASSIVE smoking in the home can increase the blood pressure of children as young as four or five, research suggests.

A study in Germany suggests that exposure to tobacco smoke at an early age can lead to higher blood pressure, which in future could increase children's risks of heart problems.

The researchers, writing in the journal Circulation, said reducing smoking in the home could cut the risks to children's health as they get older.

Dr Giacomo Simonetti, from the University of Heidelberg, said: "The prevention of adult diseases like stroke or heart attack begins during childhood. Parental smoking is not only negative for children's lung function, but poses a risk for their future cardiovascular health."

Smokers who quit the habit can see their risk of cancer and heart disease reduce to that of non-smokers within ten years. However, it is unclear whether the same effect would be seen in children who have been exposed to passive smoking because blood pressure in childhood is closely linked to that in adulthood, meaning that the damage may already have been done.

Dr Simonetti said that the researchers hoped the risk would decrease once young people left smoking environments, but they did not yet know if the damage was reversible or how long it would take.