Smoking
Adults who are smoking or children who are exposed to cigarette smoke can both develop ear infections. In addition, smoking destroys throat and nasal tissues and impairs the immune system, making them more vulnerable to infections affecting the ears.
Children, however, have a higher baseline risk of ear infections due to the architecture of their ears. Moreover, this risk is even higher if they are near a smoker. According to the CDC, secondhand smoking harms children’s health in various ways, including ear infections, respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS, and more frequent and severe asthma attacks.
Smoking can impair hearing because it reduces oxygen levels in the blood and constricts blood vessels within the body, including those in the inner ear, that are crucial for maintaining the health of hair cells.
Smoke from cigarettes and nicotine are thought to: interact with the auditory nerve’s neurotransmitters which are in charge of communicating with the brain to determine what sound a person is hearing, aggravate the middle ear’s lining and Eustachian tube, generate the release of free radicals which can harm DNA and lead to illness, and make it more prone to hearing loss brought on by loud noises and more sensitive to it.
