According to new research, prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke and childhood exposure to lead are linked to an increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Some official statistics show that, if these two factors were eliminated, the number of children suffering from ADHD could be reduced by as much as 800,000.
“Tobacco and lead exposure each have their own important adverse effect … But if children are exposed to both lead and prenatal tobacco, the combined effect is synergistic,” lead author, Tanya Froehlich, a physician in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital said.
The research team studied the cases of 3,907 children aged 8 to 15, gathered between 2001 and 2004 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prenatal tobacco exposure was measured by report of maternal cigarette use during pregnancy, and lead exposure was assessed by current blood lead levels. Based on the data, children exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally were found 2.4 times more likely to suffer ADHD.
Robert Kahn, a doctor and researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the study’s senior author said, “Although we tend to focus on ADHD treatment rather than prevention, our study suggests that reducing exposures to environmental toxicants might be an important way to lower rates of ADHD.”