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Smoking Gets a Bad Grade

Want another reason to quit smoking? Second-hand smoke has been shown to lower kids’ intelligence.

So says research published in Environmental Health Perspectives and other peer-reviewed scientific journals. Earlier studies found a link between lower test scores and exposure to second-hand smoke. Now a major study of 4,000 children confirms the link by measuring the levels of cotinine (a byproduct of nicotine) in children’s blood and comparing standardized test scores for children exposed to tobacco versus scores for those who were not exposed.

The results? Children who were not exposed to second-hand smoke scored an average of 7 points higher on math and reading tests and also fared better on tests that measure reasoning skills.

Researchers believe second-hand tobacco smoke is as harmful to children’s health as lead. The American Lung Association reports there are some 200 poisons in second-hand smoke, including 69 that cause cancer. If knowing tobacco will kill you isn’t reason enough to quit, perhaps knowing it will harm your children’s brains will do the trick.

For more information on this research, click here.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org