Tobacco smoking is an international health issue that affects most populations in the United States either directly or indirectly ( Behnke et al., 2013) . Overall, there is evidence of smoking effects on health that is well documented and information spread everywhere. The expenditure of healthcare on tobacco-related health issues in the US stands at a whopping seventy-five percent. Despite there being an improvement in the first report on smoking and health, there are shocking records on new smokers who develop from high school to junior adults. The records show that a quarter of senior high school student population is current smokers with one in two dying prematurely from smoking-related health problems. This is because most of the junior smokers propagate to adult smokers due to the high addiction of smoking. The health effects of tobacco are vast and mostly fatal in the long run. Some other effects of the prolonged smoking tend to be passed on to those who have not even seen the light of the day- the unborn children ( Behnke et al., 2013) .
Literature review
Similar to the adults, the children can be involuntarily and avoidably get exposed to the smoke. However, the exposure can be well prevented before birth and throughout the childhood process. A smoking mother affects the growing fetus to the residue in the smoke that moves through the placenta. Similarly, the passive smoking pregnant women also expose their unborn child to the agents in the smoke. Tobacco poses major health threats to the unborn baby as it does to the mother. The most notable issue with exposure to tobacco actors in the womb is compromise caused by oxygen delivery. The cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide which acts as an inhibitor in oxygen pick-up by the red blood cells ( Talhout et al., 2011) . After birth, the child may be exposed to the smoke from the smoking parents and other household members in the home setup or public places. All these add up to a substantial effect on the overall growth and development of the child.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Methodology
This study model includes the analysis and referring to the scholarly articles on the consequences of tobacco smoke on both the fetus and the child. It also includes online searches for the relevant materials that give accounts on the same. The materials would include books, journals, and other printed articles. The online searches would include trying out different keywords on various search engines to obtain the data on the same topic from various sources. Also, another method incorporated interviews from pediatric doctors to find out their important observations on children born from smoking mothers or parents.
Results
After the research, it was evident that there were numerous effects of tobacco smoke exposure to the children. The bottom line of the findings is that exposure to tobacco smoke causes impairment and diseases to the children. Many sources indicate that passive and active exposure attack the early immune system of the newborns and the growing children hence associated it with the early infant mortality ( Espy et al., 2011) .
Fetal growth
The prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke impacts negatively on the fetal growth ( Talati et al., 2017) . The children born from smoking mothers assessed based on the two measures. These measures were mean birth weight and the length of the gestational period. There is abundant literature on the impact of smoking on the birth weight of the baby. The conclusions made are that the smoking mothers have the weights of their newborns reduced to an average of two hundred grams. On the age of gestational period, the time is reduced, and mostly there occurs a preterm delivery. This also characterizes the reduced weight.
Sudden infant death
The exposure to tobacco smoke was associated with sudden death in children. However, this link limited due to some confounding factors.
Poor neurodevelopment and behavior
The maternal smoking has been highly connected to be a risk factor in the way a child develops the neuron system. Smoking during pregnancy leads to poor intellectual ability, reduced academic achievement, and poor skills in language and auditory tasks ( Espy et al., 2011) . Also, there is an alteration in behavior that leads to hyperactivity and decreased attention span.
Cardiovascular problems
In growing children, passive smoking has been found to cause coronary heart disease. The literature findings indicate that the tobacco exposure leads to atherosclerosis, thrombosis, poor oxygen transport, vascular malfunction and impaired lipid profile. As the evidence shows, there is a high risk of cardiovascular diseases in children as there are in adults.
Respiratory diseases
Effects of cigarette smoke exposure on the respiratory health of children have been thoroughly researched, and the conclusion is always positive. The mechanism in which tobacco agents affect the lungs and other respiratory tract components pose a solid understanding. Some of the associated outcomes include lung function, asthma, respiratory symptoms, lower respiratory illness in infants, and acute, chronic middle ear disease ( Espy et al., 2011) .
Discussion and conclusion
The results extensively indicate that there is more than meets the eye in the exposure of tobacco smoke in children and infants. The active smokers are at risk of making their treasured unborn children become regrets they have to deal with after birth. The impacts of tobacco smoke are adverse and mostly results in permanent impairments or even death in extreme cases. However, the effects can be avoided before the child is born through the entire childhood.
References
Talati, A., Wickramaratne, P. J., Wesselhoeft, R., & Weissman, M. M. (2017). Prenatal tobacco exposure, birthweight, and offspring psychopathology. Psychiatry Research .
Espy, K. A., Fang, H., Johnson, C., Stopp, C., Wiebe, S. A., & Respass, J. (2011). Prenatal tobacco exposure: developmental outcomes in the neonatal period. Developmental psychology , 47 (1), 153.
Behnke, M., Smith, V. C., & Committee on Substance Abuse. (2013). prenatal substance abuse: short-and long-term effects on the exposed fetus. Pediatrics , 131 (3), e1009-e1024.
Talhout, R., Schulz, T., Florek, E., Van Benthem, J., Wester, P., & Opperhuizen, A. (2011). Hazardous compounds in tobacco smoke. International journal of environmental research and public health , 8 (2), 613-628.
