一项由澳大利亚研究人员完成，发表在The American Journal of Epidemiology上的研究"Parental Prenatal Smoking and Risk of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia"显示：如果爸爸经常在孩子周围抽烟，那么孩子患儿童癌症（白血病的一种）的风险至少会提高15%。
同时这项研究显示，急性淋巴细胞白血病（ALL）是由多重因素引起的，
“研究结果表明，有一个‘老烟枪’爸爸，是孩子患ALL的风险因子之一。”由来自澳大利亚儿童健康研究院的Elizabeth Milne领衔的研究者们写道。
尽管ALL是儿童中最常见的癌症，但它的发病率依然很低，100,000个孩子当中大概只有3~5个会患此病。
研究者们对将近300个患有ALL孩子的家庭进行了调查，并对其父母双方的抽烟习惯进行了统计。他们还将这些家庭与另外800多个未患ALL的孩子的家庭进行比较。
研究者们发现，妈妈的抽烟行为并不会增加孩子患ALL的风险，但是如果在孩子印象里爸爸一直在其周围抽烟的话，他们患ALL的风险至少会增加15%。
更可怕的是，那些爸爸一天至少要抽20根烟的孩子被诊断出ALL的风险甚至增加到44%。
“长期生活在吸烟环境中与孩子得癌症之间的关联直到近期才为人们所知。” 研究者之一、来自加州大学的Patricia Buffler说。
她补充道，既然烟草中饱含毒素，包括致癌原，所以它会损伤产生精子的细胞也不无可能。
Milne也表示赞同，她说：“精子中含有DNA（易受损伤），在与卵子结合之后，就可能将疾病带给下一代。”
但是，她又补充道，这项研究并没有证明精子DNA损伤会导致儿童患ALL，而且这种疾病是由多个因素造成的。
其他极有可能导致儿童患上ALL的环境因素还包括致电离辐射（如X射线）以及妈妈在怀孕期间长期暴露于涂料和杀虫剂环境中。（生物谷bioon.com）
doi:10.1093/aje/kwr275
PMC:
PMID:
Parental Prenatal Smoking and Risk of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Elizabeth Milne, Kathryn R. Greenop, Rodney J. Scott, Helen D. Bailey, John Attia, Luciano Dalla-Pozza, Nicholas H. de Klerk and Bruce K. Armstrong
The association between parental smoking and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was investigated in an Australian population-based case-control study that included 388 cases and 868 controls aged <15 years, recruited from 2003 to 2006. Both of the child’s parents provided information about their smoking habits for each year from age 15 years to the child’s birth. Data were analyzed by logistic regression. Maternal smoking was not associated with risk of childhood ALL, but the odds ratio for paternal smoking of ≥15 cigarettes per day around the time of the child’s conception was 1.35 (95% confidence interval: 0.98, 1.86). The associations between parental smoking risk of childhood ALL did not differ substantially by immunophenotypic or cytogenetic subtype. Meta-analyses of paternal smoking, including results from the Australian Study of Causes of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Children and those of previous studies, produced summary odds ratios of 1.15 (95% confidence interval: 1.06, 1.24) for any paternal smoking around the time of the child’s conception and 1.44 (95% confidence interval: 1.24, 1.68) for smoking ≥20 cigarettes per day at that time. Study results suggest that heavier paternal smoking around the time of conception is a risk factor for childhood ALL. Men should be strongly encouraged to cease smoking, particularly when planning to start a family.
