Cureus | Smoking – Its Imitative Hand-oral Behaviour and Ingestion Thereby of Environmental Toxins Like Lead (Pb)

Smoking – Its Imitative Hand-oral Behaviour and Ingestion Thereby of Environmental Toxins Like Lead (Pb)



Abstract

Objective: To examine the hypothesis that children imitate the non-food pseudo- ingestive hand-oral action of smoking, increasing their ingestion of lead (Pb).

Method: Using archival data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) National Survey of Lead in Children (NSLC), two families (linear and logistic) of multiple regression equations were examined as to what extent interaction variables formulated from measures or proxies of exposure to environmental lead (age of child, time spent in environment (each of); with (each of) house-dust lead, yard-soil lead, dwelling age and flaking-paint lead; and, (each of, as the ultimate comparison) parentally-reported child soil-eating, or, smoking by others in the child’s environment) would, with all subordinate constituent simple variables or interaction variables preliminarily entered into the regression model(s), be accepted into or not the multiple regression equation(s) predicting child blood lead.

Results: Comparison of the statistical significances of each interaction Independent Variable in its respective regression equation found that reported smoking by persons in the child’s household was better than reported child soil-eating as a predictor of child blood lead.

Conclusions and Implications: The results support the hypothesis that children imitate the non-food pseudo-ingestive hand-oral action of smoking, increasing their ingestion of contaminant lead in their environment. Furthermore, that it is very likely that the same increase of ingestion, and even inhalation, of other environmental contaminants, particularly as are still more common in the Developing World, would apply.

Full article: http://gjmedph.com/uploads/O4-Vo5No3.pdf

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Smoking – Its Imitative Hand-oral Behaviour and Ingestion Thereby of Environmental Toxins Like Lead (Pb)


Author Information

David J. Vance Corresponding Author

Independent Consultant, Windsor, AUS


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