Reducing Young Children’s Exposure to Secondhand Smoke

University of Alabama at Birmingham: Center for Health Promotion

University of New Mexico: Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Topics:
Healthy Youth | Tobacco Prevention & Control

Parents, children, communities, and physicians are aiming to reduce secondhand smoke exposure among young children. About 1,000 smokers in Kentucky, whose children are aged 3 to 6 years, are receiving information about the dangers of secondhand smoke and advice about instituting a home ban on smoking. These smokers are also participating in a statewide contest to quit smoking. Researchers in New Mexico developed and are testing a training program to teach pediatricians skills and strategies they can use to help their patients’ parents quit smoking. In Birmingham, Alabama, the mothers of about 200 children attending Head Start sites are learning about the hazards of secondhand smoke and strategies to ban smoking in their homes and cars. Parents who smoke are referred to local cessation programs. The children receive 10 classroom sessions (integrated into the Head Start curriculum) to learn about the dangers of secondhand smoke and how to avoid it, and how to share what they learn with their parents. A 3-month maintenance phase is planned including telephone and mailed follow-up activities.

 

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