Canadian researchers said that children ages 5-12 whose blood contained elevated levels of cotinine -- a metabolite of nicotine -- were twice as likely to become smokers during adolescence as those who were not exposed to nicotine. Researchers controlled for such factors as sex, socioeconomic status, presence of adult smokers in the home, and the number of cigarettes smoked by adults in the home.

"We found that environmental tobacco smoke in the home in late childhood, when your children are around the age of nine and 10, leads to an uptake of cigarette smoke which gives them a cigarette rush which appears to ... (predict) whether they're going to smoke in adolescence," said lead author Margaret Becklake of McGill University in Montreal.

The researchers also noted that smoking initiation was more strongly associated with the onset of puberty than chronological age.

"If we start to see how exposure to secondhand smoke as a child affects future smoking behavior, maybe policymakers and governments would look at this a little more seriously and potentially look at things like schools, smoking bans on school (property), smoking in the home, doing more prevention," said Kristen Cleary, an addiction therapist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

The study was published in the August 16, 2005 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Becklake M. R., Ghezzo H., and Ernst P. (2005) Childhood predictors of smoking in adolescence: a follow-up study of Montréal schoolchildren. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 173(4): 377-379.

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