It is known and has been shown on several occasions that even in people who do not smoke, the ingestion of tobacco smoke can lead to health problems, but now the Barcelona Institute of Global Health has shown in a study that the so-called "passive smoking" can leave negative traces in the DNA of children.

"These clues we have found are found in genes close to respiratory and cardiovascular problems," says Marta Cosin-Tomàs, a researcher at OGI. The study was based on blood samples from 2,689 seven- and ten-year-old children, originally from eight different European countries.

The Barcelona Public Health Agency concluded in a study in 2019 that three-quarters of children under the age of twelve in the Spanish state continue to ingest tobacco smoke: 29.2% of them at home or by car, and 42.5% in open or public areas.