Kids whose parents smoke are more likely to get ear infections and have hearing problems, according to a new review paper. When moms lit up, kids were also almost twice as likely to need surgery for recurrent ear infections or similar problems, researchers reported. The findings come from a combination of 61 past studies. While they can’t prove that smoke exposure causes ear infections, researchers suggested that if that’s the case, hundreds of thousands of ear infections may be due to parents’ smoking each year. “It’s pretty impressive, especially since ear infections cause enormous pain,” said Dr. Michael Weitzman, who studies the effects of parental smoking at New York University Medical Center and was not involved in the study.
