Stop now: Eliminating cigarette smoke can prevent allergies

The European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation (ECARF) points out the allergy-causing effects of smoking on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, 31 May 2010.

It is widely acknowledged that smoking and second-hand-smoke can cause cancer or pulmonary emphysema. A less well-known fact is that smoking can also cause allergies. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), children who grow up in a smoking household have a 30% higher risk of developing allergic asthma than the children of non-smokers.

“Second-hand smoke in the home is a significant factor in the development of allergies and asthma among children and young people," explains Professor Dr. med Torsten Zuberbier, head of the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation (ECARF). “Children do not yet have a fully developed immune system and are therefore more susceptible to respiratory diseases. Avoiding cigarette smoke in the home is an active step toward preventing allergies and improving quality of life for the whole family.”

Allergies are on the rise all over Europe, and in Germany they already number among the most common health problems. Currently, around 650 000 children and young people suffer from asthma and about one million from hayfever. This has consequences for every day life. For example, studies have shown that learning capacity in schoolchildren with hayfever is reduced by 30 percent.

Allergy prevention begins at home

Parents or expecting parents can reduce their children’s risk of allergies through the elimination of tobacco and through many other measures. The “Guidelines for Primary Allergy Prevention”, published in 2003 by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF) and updated in 2009 with the support of the German Society for Allergology and Clinical Immunology (DGAKI), give precise information and recommendations on how to prevent allergies in everyday life. The guidelines provide information on, for example, how allergy risks for babies can be influenced during the nursing period, how the consumption of fish can serve as a preventive action, and which house-pets are suitable for allergic persons. The guidelines are valid until 2014.

More information is available in german at:
www.dgaki.de/Leitlinien/leitlinien.html

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