Children whose fathers breathed cigarette smoke more likely to get asthma – study

The researchers found that the risk of non-allergic asthma in children increased by 59% if their fathers were exposed to secondhand smoke in childhood. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Children are much more likely to develop asthma if their father was exposed to tobacco smoke when he was growing up, a study has found.

And they are at even greater risk of suffering from the common lung condition if their father was a smoker himself, according to the international team of researchers.