CINCINNATI, March 14 (UPI) -- A U.S. study has found African-American children with asthma are more susceptible to the toxic ingredients of tobacco smoke.
The study, published in Chest, reports African-American children with asthma who are exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke have greatly higher amounts of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, in their bodies.
Lead author Dr. Stephen Wilson of the University of Cincinnati and colleagues from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center examined 220 tobacco-exposed children with asthma who had previously participated in the Cincinnati Asthma Prevention study.
All the children had physician-diagnosed asthma and were exposed to at least five cigarettes per day in or around the home, according to Wilson.
"African-American children may 'handle' environmental tobacco smoke differently than white children, so these results raise questions as to whether there are racial differences in other tobacco toxicants, as well," Wilson said in a statement.
