HEALTH : 2nd-Hand Smoke Perils Children

Parents who smoke may be increasing the odds that their children will develop heart disease later in life, according to a new study presented here today.

“This is another reason for parents who smoke to think seriously about the toxic effect their habit has on their children,” Dr. Paul Pomrehn of the University of Iowa told the American Heart Assn. conference.

The study looked at the effect of tobacco exposure on levels of high-density lipoproteins--HDL or the so-called “good cholesterol”--in the blood of nearly 7,000 Iowa sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. HDL is known as good cholesterol because it is believed to chip away at cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels.

Pomrehn’s study found that HDL levels were 7% lower in the daughters of smoking parents and 4% lower in the sons of smokers, compared to the levels found in the children of nonsmokers.