A mom or dad who vapes at home might be setting their child up for eczema, new research suggests.

In a study involving data from over 35,000 U.S. households, children with a parent who used e- cigarettes had 24% higher odds for eczema (aka atopic dermatitis) than kids with two nonvaping parents did.

“Our results suggest that parental e-cigarette use was associated with pediatric atopic dermatitis,” concluded a team led by Dr. Golara Honari, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at Stanford University in California.

Her team recently published its findings in JAMA Dermatology.

According to the research, there is science backing up the notion that exposure to the toxins emitted in e-cigarette vapor could trigger changes in children’s skin.

Prior lab studies have “demonstrated increased oxidative stress in human keratinocytes and 3-dimensional skin models exposed to e-cigarette fluids and aerosol residues,” they noted. Keratinocytes are cells that make up about 90% of the skin’s outer epidermal layer.

“We hypothesize that secondhand exposure to e-cigarettes is associated with a similar response among children, elevating atopic dermatitis risk,” the Stanford team wrote.

The new study drew on 2014-18 data from the National Health Interview Survey, involving about 35,000 households. It’s a face-to-face survey of families conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Parents were asked about any cases of eczema diagnosed in their child, plus use of e-cigarettes at home.

About 13% of children in the survey had a history of eczema, which is consistent with typical estimates.

But kids exposed to vaping were 24% more likely to have eczema, compared to those who weren’t, the team found. That was true even if a parent also smoked traditional cigarettes in the home.

The team pointed out that the study wasn’t designed to prove cause-and-effect. However, this look at vaping’s effect on kids’ health was needed, “given the exponentially increasing prevalence of e-cigarette use and its unstudied association with the health of nearby family members,” Honari said.