According to a new Dutch study, damage to the arteries of smokers’ children may detect in the early decades of their lives.

Dr. Cuno S.P.M Uiterwaal, who led the study, says: “many other studies have also found that smoking in families can harm children’s cardiovascular system, but our study adds that such effect may occur in very early life due to tobacco exposure.”

The finding has been reported in the December issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. The researchers used ultrasound to assess the thickness of the walls of carotid arteries (the major blood vessels to the brain) in 732 young adults with 28 year average age. The records unveiled that more than 60 percent of the fathers and 29 percent of the mothers used to smoke during the pregnancies.

In the young adults, who had both parents smoking in pregnancy, the inner lining of the carotid arteries was thicker that showed a possible danger in the coming years.

Uiterwaal says that their findings regarding fetal smoking exposure may become the first signal that will have to be confirmed by other studies in this field.

“Low birth weight and increased risk for childhood respiratory disease are often related to exposure to tobacco smoke of pregnant women. But now our study adds that exposure to tobacco smoke may already harm the cardiovascular system of the unborn baby,” Uiterwaal added.