SMOKERS may huff about their rights to indulge their puffing habit, but they could be harming those around them even more than we thought. Inhaling passive smoke may physically prime some children to become smoking addicts later in life.
There is already growing evidence that second-hand smoke is not only harmful in itself, but that watching peers and parents light up teaches children to become smokers. Now Margaret Becklake, an epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal, and her colleagues have found tantalising evidence of a more insidious effect.
They studied 191 boys and girls. On their first meeting, the children…
