Protecting children from passive smoking

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7257.310

BMJ 2000;321:310-311 ( 5 August )

Editorials

Protecting children from passive smoking

The risks are clear and a comprehensive strategy is now needed

Papers pp 333, 337, 343

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Environmental tobacco smoke is a serious health risk to children. Regulatory measures to protect children, such as eliminatingsmoking in day care settings, schools, and public places, do notaddress their main source of exposure to tobacco smoke $---$ their homes.Formal structures for protecting children in the home are usuallyonly used in certain circumstances involving custody and adoption,¹and legislation to ban smoking in homes is unlikely, so otherstrategies to reduce children's exposure to environmental tobaccosmoke must be put inplace.

In this issue of the BMJ, three separate but thematically related papers provide support for a comprehensive approach to protectchildren from environmental tobacco smoke.^2-4 Jarvis et al reportthat much of the reduction in exposure among English childrenaged 11-15 that occurred between 1988 and 1998 was due to reducedprevalence of parental smoking, as well as reduced smoking inthe home (p 343).² Thus public . . . [Full text of this article]

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