We know that smoking has numerous secondary effects, both to active smokers and passive smokers. More familiar are lung cancer and heart attack. But, it is not well known that smoking also have side effects on our ears, and may produce ear infection named Otitis Media.
This infection is actually quite general to children. When a kid has a virus or a cold, an augmentation of the mucus occurs on the nose that turns into home for bacteria. The bacteria can go to the ear canal through the Eustachian tube in the nose. This bacteria might then very well provoke an infection which give symptoms fever, fluid on the ear, and earache after a few days. On the average, children go through this process 3 times before the age of six. Nevertheless, if the kid is exposed to smoke, say from smoking parents, the average process happens 8 times.
Now, how can smoking cause this ear infection?
As we are all familiar of, smoke is irritant to our nasal canal. Because our body is weaponed with defence mechanisms, our nasal passage will increase with mucus irritants are present. As said above, aumented mucus turns into a favorable home to bacteria that could travel and infect our ears. Hence the Otitis Media is provoked by the defensive action of our body facing smoke inhalation.
Apart from thickening our mucus, smoke also decreases our immune system. Tons of researches have shown that being exposed to smoke makes the body weaker to diseases. Also etablished is that this is true not only for actual smokers, but for passive smokers. So, even if children, or or adults, do not smoke but are exposed to second-hand smoke, their immune system are still lesseneddiminished, making it tougher to fight off infections.
Now, it is not only the pain and discomfort that this infection brings that we must be wary of. Repeated Otitis Media could indeed turns into a gradual loss of hearing for children. Though this is rare, this is not something that you want to risk.
Thus, for all smokers out there, it is important that if you cannotstop smoking(actually, you can), please try to avoid smoking if children are near. Ear infections may be less-not as evil than heart attack or emphysema, but seeing it is kids that we are talking about, even a little infection should be given much importance.
