Children who are exposed to tobacco smoke at home miss more days of school than kids living in smoke-free households, a new U.S. study indicates.
In homes with one smoker, children aged six to 11, were absent from school for an average of four days per year due to illness. And when there were two or more smokers at home, that figure climbed to 4.6 sick days annually.
By contrast, children who are not exposed to domestic second-hand smoke miss about three days of school a year, according to the findings published in the journal Pediatrics.
"We can't say that missing one extra day at school is going to set someone back irrevocably in terms of their education," said the lead author of the study, Douglas Levy of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "But it is an indicator of a sickness which is being imposed on kids by the virtue of the environment in which they are living."