New Health Risk Found for Teen Smoking

WASHINGTON — People trying to stop teens from smoking may have a new weapon — a study showing that even secondhand smoke raises the risk of metabolic syndrome, a condition marked by obesity, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels and pre-diabetes.

The American Heart Association estimates that 47 million U.S. adults have metabolic syndrome, which greatly raises the odds of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It is associated with obesity and smoking in adults.

But a study published in the journal Circulation on Monday shows that teens who smoke — and those who are around people who smoke — also have a higher risk of this condition.

"This is the first study to link this syndrome, which most people associate with obesity, to secondhand smoke," Dr. Michael Weitzman of the University of Rochester in New York, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

"All things equal, you are almost five times more likely to develop the metabolic syndrome if you are exposed to secondhand smoke," Weitzman added. "Active smoking increases the risk to at least six times that of a non-exposed individual."

For the study, Weitzman’s team looked at interviews of 2,273 adolescents aged 12 to 19 done as part of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Overall 5.6 percent of adolescents had metabolic syndrome, including 1.2 percent of those with no exposure to smoke, as defined by their own reports and by measuring levels of a chemical byproduct of nicotine called cotinine in their blood.

‘VERY INSIDIOUS’

More than 5 percent of those whose cotinine levels suggested smoke exposure had metabolic syndrome, and 8.7 percent of those who actively smoked had metabolic syndrome.

And it was worse for overweight teens. The researchers found that 23.6 percent of overweight teen smokers had metabolic syndrome.

Two-thirds of the teens who did not smoke had cotinine levels of between .05 and 15 nanograms per milliliter, indicating they were exposed to secondhand smoke.

"This is very insidious because you are not really aware that you are developing these complications," Weitzman said.

"The problem is that 17-year-olds have trouble understanding the implications for 30 years later."

But Weitzman said it is clear that teens who associate with smokers are also in danger — a message that may get through to teen smokers.

"It is not just that they are harming themselves by smoking. They are harming their friends," he said.

About 16 percent of all children and teens in the United States are overweight, according to the American Heart Association, which publishes Circulation.

"This is a group in which it is profoundly important to reduce secondhand smoke exposure and active smoking," Weitzman said.

"Even if you are not overweight, if you are an adult smoker you tend to have central obesity," Weitzman said. Central or abdominal obesity means the fat collects in and around the organs, and is associated with more disease than under-the-skin fat.

Smoking may simply be a marker for unhealthy behavior, meaning them people who smoke are also less likely to exercise or eat healthily. But Weitzman believes that further research will show that smoking affects the body in ways that may in turn impact metabolism.