Parents warned about dangers to children from passive smoking

Doctors round on adults who smoke in front of children as the world marks No Tobacco Day on Tuesday.

Children don’t have any choice but to stay with their parents when they drop in for a shisha, a doctor says. Kamran Jebreili / AP Photo

ABU DHABI // Smokers, listen carefully: lighting up in front of your children can cause cancer and breathing problems.

To mark international No Tobacco Day on Tuesday, doctors are pushing the message to parents who either don’t know, or have chosen to ignore their many warnings on the dangers of passive smoking to youngsters.

Dr Falah Al Khatib, a consultant oncologist at Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai, says children’s lungs are not fully developed so they are more susceptible to harmful chemicals.

“Passive smoking can increase a non-smoker’s risk of getting lung cancer by 20 to 30 per cent,” Dr Al Khatib said.

“As lung cancer is an adult disease there is no real way you can link it to exposure as a child, but all smoking is bad, whether you are smoking in front of a child or an adult. With a child, their tissues are still developing so there is more chance of permanently damaging these tissues.”

Dr Zouhair Harb, of Advanced Cure Diagnostic Centre in Abu Dhabi, said youths exposed to smoke suffered coughing and shortness of breath, and in asthmatics the symptoms worsened.

“In a very young person, smoke will affect them more than it would affect an older person. But, the good thing about a young person is that their lungs can fix themselves,” he said.

“When I go to a place where people are smoking shisha outside I don’t want to sit there. Children can’t choose, they come and sit with their parents.”

Dr Harb believed parents often did not understand that they were harming their child by smoking in front of them, and that education was crucial.

Dr Marwan Al Obeidi, clinical head at Dr Michael’s Dental Clinic in Dubai, said patients were always asked about how much alcohol they drank and whether they smoked before screening for tobacco-related oral cancer was done.

“If they are smokers I advise them on the effects of smoking, not only on their general health but I also advise them on the effects of second-hand smoking on the people around them,” Dr Al Obeidi said.

He said a Japanese study showed that exposure to tobacco smoke at four months of age was associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of tooth decay in milk teeth. The risk of tooth decay also increased among adults exposed to smoking in their homes.

“We are seeing a general trend of reduction in the number of smokers in the West but, unfortunately, it remains a large-scale problem in the Middle East,” Dr Al Obeidi said.

“There are a lot of parents in the UAE who smoke cigarettes and shisha. I think these findings will be useful in educating parents about their children’s oral health.”

Ahmed Salem, 38, an Emirati father of three, used to smoke shisha in front of his children but quit when they started questioning his habit.

“I used to smoke shisha in front of my children in the garden,” Mr Salem said. “I have recently quit now that my children – aged 4, 7 and 8 – are older and are always playing the garden.

“I thought it was safe because the area we smoke in is away from where the kids play. I quit when I realised what example am I giving if they see their father smoke.

“Now that they are older they ask a lot of questions and asked me why I smoke when it’s dangerous. I couldn’t answer them.

“My family are all heavy smokers. I couldn’t convince them to stop but they are only allowed to smoke outside when the kids are not playing there.”