Irish children of parents who both smoke had five times the nicotine level of children from homes where neither parent smoked according to a study presented at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health yesterday.
Mr Maurice Mulcahy, senior environmental health officer with the Western Health Board (WHB) and Dr David Evans of the Department of Public Health, WHB, examined 123 children from three schools in the Galway area.
They took saliva samples from the children in order to measure the level of cotinine - a breakdown product of nicotine - a widely accepted method of assessing exposure to passive smoking.
The researchers assessed the level of home smoking by parents by means of a questionnaire.
Mr Mulcahy told the conference that children from smoking households had more than three times the cotinine concentration level than children from "smoke free homes". Children from households where only the mother smoked had twice the levels of those from homes where only the father smoked.
"The most common location for exposure to environmental tobacco smoke were children's homes (27 per cent) and other homes at 13 per cent. Ten per cent of children were exposed to smoke in restaurants and nine per cent in cars," he said.
Referring to the fact that less than half of those questioned could recall a specific exposure to smoke even though every single child showed some level of cotinine in their bodies, Mr Mulcahy said the research indicated that passive smoking is widespread among children.
"Not only is their exposure involuntary but it often goes unnoticed by them," he told the conference.
"The proposed extension of legislation restricting smoking in restaurants and workplaces will herald a new 'social norm' in Ireland and we hope offer an immediate reduction in passive smoking exposure amongst children."
Earlier, at a separate session, Mr Mulcahy and Dr Evans detailed research which showed that only 16 per cent of 18 year- olds had been asked for identification before being sold cigarettes. It is illegal to sell tobacco to children under 18 years in the Republic.
The study of retailers and schoolchildren also found that 60 per cent of retailers in the West had more tobacco than ice cream advertising in their shops.