Tobacco Smoke Linked to Child Hay Fever

University of Cincinnati epidemiologists say tobacco smoke drastically increases an infant’s risk for developing allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, by age 1.

Allergic rhinitis occurs when a person’s immune system mistakenly reacts to allergens in the air and the body then releases substances to protect itself, causing the allergy sufferer to experience persistent sneezing and a runny, blocked nose, according to lead author Jocelyn Biagini, an epidemiologist at the University of Cincinnati’s Environmental Health Department.

This is the first study to show a relationship between environmental tobacco-smoke exposure and allergic rhinitis in infants, the researchers reported in the June issue of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology online Wednesday.

We found that infants who were exposed to 20 or more cigarettes a day were three times more likely to develop allergic rhinitis by their first birthday than those who were not exposed, says Biagini.