Exposure to smoke, lead ups risk of ADHD

If you need another reason to stop smoking while pregnant, or to rid your home of lead, a new study suggests that children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and who are exposed to the metal have more than twice the usual risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Study co-author Dr. Tanya E. Froehlich, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, told Reuters Health that the lead finding is particularly “surprising,” given that the blood lead levels in the study children—even those in the top third of the sample – were, on average, about a tenth of the threshold for harmful effects set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“These are not high levels of lead exposure; they are historically what we would consider to be low levels,” Froehlich said. Go to Source

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