Secondhand Smoke and Hearing Loss

 

  If you don't smoke that's good, but if you live around someone who does, it might not be good enough. 
Research indicates that living with a smoker can boost your chances of getting lung cancer by up to 30 percent.  Other studies suggest secondhand smoke can heighten the risk of breast and nasal sinus cavity cancer in adults as well as leukemia, lymphoma and brain cancer in children.  Cancer isn't the only concern when it comes to breathing in another person's cigarette smoke.  In the United States alone, secondhand smoke is believed to lead to more than 45,000 heart disease deaths every year.
  Now a brand new study finds secondhand smoke may also contribute to hearing loss in teenagers. 
Another reason to do you best to limit your exposure to smoke-filled environments.
From TIME:
   According to a new study from New York University's Langone Medical Center, teens who are regularly exposed to second hand smoke are nearly twice as likely to have hearing loss as teens who live in smoke-free environments. The study involved 1,533 non-smoking adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 who underwent hearing tests to determine auditory acuity at both high- and low-frequencies. Researchers also measured the subjects' blood concentrations of cotinine — a byproduct of the neurotoxin nicotine that is often used as a biomarker of smoke exposure.

Not only were teens who had the highest level of cotinine more likely to have high- and low-frequency hearing loss, the degree of that impairment was proportional to the level of blood toxicity. In other words, the greater the smoke exposure, the greater the damage — which suggests that the rate of hearing loss could be cumulative.

It's too early to say with certainty how secondhand smoke could relate to hearing loss. Previous studies have established a link between smoke exposure and ear infections in children. When that exposure is chronic, the infections could be too, and hearing loss could result. For now, that mechanism is only theorized and more work will be needed to establish it conclusively.