Tobacco, Lead Could Increase ADHD Risk

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Environmental factors may increase a child's risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  New research suggests exposure to both tobacco and lead may increase his or her risk by eight-fold.

A recent study from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found a connection between ADHD, prenatal tobacco exposure and childhood exposure to lead.

“Tobacco and lead exposure each have their own important adverse effect,” Tanya Froehlich, M.D., lead author of the study, was quoted as saying. “But if children are exposed to both lead and prenatal tobacco, the combined effect is synergistic.”

Authors say that society tends to focus on the treatments for ADHD rather than prevention. Reducing the exposure to lead and tobacco could eliminate the 35 percent, or about 800,000 of children ages eight to 15 whose ADHD is caused by environmental exposures, according to the study.

The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center study involved 3,907 children ages eight to 15. Prenatal tobacco exposure was determined by maternal reports, and blood lead levels determined lead exposure.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, November 23, 2009

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