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Doctor blames parents smoking for high rate of children's chest infections  

A third of children given hospital treatment for chest infections and asthma are only ill because their parents smoke in front of them, a medical expert has said.

Dr Steve Ryan, medical director of Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital, said bronchitis, asthma and ear infection rates would fall sharply if parents gave up smoking.

He told BBC Radio Five Live this morning that, out of the 35,000 children the hospital treats every year, 2,000 are there because they have been exposed to their parents' smoke.

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