Why Parents Who Smoke Put Their Kids at Risk

"But quitting smoking would end that worry, and that risk."

I'm sorry, but huh?!

A study that shows a prevalence of behavior issues in children of smokers, but doesn't actually look at the behavioral issues of the parents, can not draw ANY conclusions about what would happen if the parent's didn't smoke. It even says, "they can't prove that smoking was the cause of the preschoolers' behavior problems." So if you can't prove it's a cause, then you can't prove eliminating it would address the problem.

And as for the ADHD mentions; you're ignoring key data. There have already been studies indicating how prevalent smoking is in ADHD and ADHD-PI sufferers (both adult and adolescents). It's also been a long studied (and so far backed up theory) that individuals with mental health conditions self medicate with cigarettes because it creates both a chemical and behavioral trigger of pleasure which helps them to concentrate. Additionally, anyone who's studied most of the common mental health conditions (including but not limited to ADHD) knows they tend to run in families.

So you're talking about parents - who are born with behavioral disorders - smoking. So when their kids end up having behavioral disorders; the smoking is the reason?

These conclusions are as false as the statistics of how many people die from "smoking related illnesses." Just because someone dies of emphysema doesn't mean it had anything to do with exposure to tobacco smoking, but we still count their death in the toll. It's a false attempt to prove correlation and causation without real evidence.

Katherine L of IL 2:06AM July 04, 2010

you know, we now add this to the list of pesticides, lead, mercury, smoke inhalation, food allergies, genes, etc. that now seem to contribute to ADHD. No wonder we're all confused.

Perhaps knowing the cause doesn't effect change. Let's try to stay healthy by eating foods processed as little as possible or not at all. We also have to try cognitive programs, memory programs, etc. We used Play Attention and ADHD Nanny with our son, Alex, with great success. It's a long road, but we have no idea what causes ADHD. Finding the right, practical, sensible solution is what is important.

john glennon of NC 1:19PM July 01, 2010