Second-hand smoke can hit hearing

Inhaling other people’s tobacco smoke almost doubled the risk of impaired hearing among adolescents, scientists discovered.

Levels of hearing loss were mild but potentially enough to affect performance in the classroom.

Exposure to second-hand smoke has already been linked to a range of dangers in both children and adults.

Living with a smoker is known to raise the risk of dying from heart disease and lung cancer. In children, it worsens the severity of asthma attacks and can lead to middle ear infections.

The new US study looked at health data on more than 1,500 children and teenagers aged 12 to 19.

Participants were given extensive hearing tests.

Their blood was also analysed for traces of cotinine, a chemical produced from nicotine in the body. The presence of cotinine in the blood of a non-smoker is evidence of passive smoking.

Youngsters exposed to second-hand smoke were more likely to be suffering from senso-neural hearing loss, caused by problems affecting the inner ear, the type of hearing loss that tends to occur with ageing.