A new study has found that tobacco-related carcinogens are found in the urine of 90 per cent of children who lived in a home where at least one parent smoked.
The researchers took urine samples from 79 children aged one month to 10 years and found that the average level of tobacco metabolites was about 8 per cent of the level found in smokers.
Although the researchers expected some level of exposure to carcinogens in children, the average levels were far higher than anticipated.
The researchers also found a direct correlation between the numbers of cigarettes smoked by one or more adults in a house each day and tobacco metabolites in the children who lived there.