Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 127, Issue 9, September 2013, Pages 872-874
Public Health

Short Communication
Smoking among children aged 10–11 years in Brussels

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2013.06.002Get rights and content

Introduction

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that more than 80% of adult smokers started smoking before 18 years of age.1 Hipple et al. asserted that, every day, 82,000–99,000 young people begin smoking throughout the world.2 According to the literature, there are sequential steps in smoking addiction.3 The crucial age of smoking initiation may start in childhood, around 10–11 years of age.4, 5 Since 1982, the percentage of regular smokers has declined in Belgium.

The aim of this study was to determine environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure among children aged 10–11 years in Brussels using analysis of the children's hair and a parental questionnaire regarding smoking behaviour in the household. A further aim was to identify factors linked to child smoking and emphasize the importance of a smoke-free household.

The data used for this study were from a 2005 database conducted in the framework of the Prospective Research for Brussels, the objective of which was assessment of chronic tobacco exposure of children in Brussels and the awareness of those concerned. A parental questionnaire was distributed to children in fifth grade classes (age 10–11 years) of public primary schools in 19 districts of Brussels. In addition, hair samples were collected from children to quantify nicotine levels. Kim et al. considered the nicotine threshold in hair of children aged ≥6 years to be 0.63 ng/mg.6 Al-Demaily et al. classified the categories of ETS exposure as follows:7 not exposed, 0.62 ng/mg; 50% passive, 2.72 ng/mg; 100% passive, 6.69 ng/mg; and smoker, 7.92 ng/mg. As such, in this study, children with nicotine levels of 0–0.62 ng/mg in their hair were regarded as non-exposed to ETS. Children with nicotine levels of 0.63–7.91 ng/mg and ≥7.92 ng/mg were regarded as exposed to ETS and active smokers, respectively.

Section snippets

Characteristics of the study population

Of the 318 participants in this study, nicotine analysis was possible in hair samples from 265 children. The mean age of participants was 10.4 years. Two out of every five households had at least one smoker, most often the father. More than 50% of fathers smoked regularly (11–20 cigarettes/day). Hair analysis revealed that 16.2% of children were not exposed to ETS, 78.5% of children had been exposed to ETS and 5.3% of children were active smokers. The median (interquartile range) level of

Discussion and conclusion

A limitation of this study is that the sample was taken from children enrolled in public schools in Brussels who agreed to participate in this survey; as such, the sample is not representative of all 10–11-year-old children in Brussels. The study needs to be reiterated with a larger and more inclusive sample size for generalization purposes.

The nicotine level was quantified in 265 children in this study, and the results indicate that 14 of these children were active smokers. This is in contrast

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Faculty of Medecine at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium on 16 March 2006.

Funding

Brussels Capital Region (Belgium) in the framework of the Prospective Research for Brussels.

Competing interests

None declared.

First page preview

First page preview
Click to open first page preview

References (11)

  • B. Hipple et al.

    Global teens and tobacco: a review of the globalization of the tobacco epidemic

    Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care

    (2011)
  • Arrazola RA, Dube SR, Kaufmann RB, Caraballo RS, Pechacek T. Tobacco use among middle and high school students-United...
  • L. Turner et al.

    Individual and contextual influences on adolescent smoking

    Ann N Y Acad Sci

    (2004)
  • Vandercammen M. Centre de Recherche et d’Information des Organisations de Consommateurs, CRIOC. Jeunes et Tabac Janvier...
  • D. Hrubá et al.

    Where do our children learn to smoke?

    Cent Eur J Public Health

    (2008)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.
View full text