I trust the American Academy of Pediatrics' figures for deaths refer to the U.S. only. Secondhand smoke kills FAR more people annually worldwide. Here's an excerpt from an article in chinadaily.com.cn that was updated on July 29, 2014:
"Health authorities estimate that about 1.4 million Chinese die of smoking-related illness every year as apart from 300 million smokers. 740 million others are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke."
3
Just wait 'til research indicates the detrimental, epigenetic changes parents who smoke will pass on to their offspring.
3
Smoking is not a healthy habit, no question about it. But what about the millions living in a sea of hydrocarbons and other pollutants brought about by auto emissions,, factory emissions, dumping waste into our water supply, etc, etc, etc? All of that gets on our skin, clothes, furniture, etc. I take it that these play no part in destroying our kid's lungs?
The evidence for second hand smoke is persuasive, despite the use of genetically engineered mice more prone to developing cancers and then sticking them an enclosed box while smoke from the equivalent of 2200 cigarettes is pumped into it daily.
But really, Ms Brody, what do you propose about banning fossil fuel burning vehicles and industrial pollution?
@Jesse Silver Whataboutism. By introducing "what about" into the conversation, you are attempting to diminish this topic.
5
@Jesse Silver, typical response from a smoker.
3
As a baby boomer, I was constantly exposed to second hand smoke when I was young and feel no effects on it and never have. I’ve never smoked but my father did and, when he brought me to movies, we sat through double features that lasted hours and everyone in the theater was smoking just like him. They put their butts out on the floor. At work, in a newsroom, nearly everyone smoked, some of them cigars. Same for planes (remember the smoking sections?).
I wonder if today’s kids have any idea of all of this and yet I feel perfectly fine, never had asthma. I think we worry too much these days.....
3
@Pablo you are fortunate. In the 70s I was constantly ill with broncchitis and now have asthma due to parental smoking.
4
@Pablo
Your reasoning is much like the guy who says “ I drank a fifth of bourbon, drove 50 miles, and nothing happened to me.”
Just because you personally didn’t appear to suffer does not mean it is safe or a good idea.
1
Thanks for shedding light on this important issue! However, I was disappointed to see Jane Brody state that there are 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke when we’ve known for years that there are 7,000! Come on NYT, I expect better.
This is something that frustrates me. I love someone who smokes and the smoke lives in their clothing. They smoke indoors and hang around other smokers so their clothes and belonging become engulfed in it. I am so sensitive that even though they aren’t smoking, somehow the smoke particles emanate from their clothing. I could smell it before I even knew they were in the room and my sinuses would light up like I was breathing in acid. My guardians and cousins smoked in the house in the car and wherever we were when I was a child and in my early teens. (1960’s and 70’s) I never noticed it then. When I smoked lightly as an adult, it never bothered me. I was never a habitual smoker. After I stopped smoking and I wasn’t exposed to second hand smoke regularly I became ultra sensitive not only to second hand smoke but to the smell in buildings, clothing, furniture, etc.... The most difficult thing is that it causes me to have sinus headaches that often become migraines. Worse yet, is that is that it affects my relationship with someone who wont quit. It literally hurts me to be around it. People mostly don’t understand what they haven’t experienced. I suffer from auto-inflammatory issues that often revolve around things in my environment including dust and smoke. I suspected what this article reveals about so called third hand smoke. It makes sense that infants and children could also be harmed. As humans we need to consider all things in the environment we live in.
My father used to smoke but he expired in 1986 at the age of 60 years not due to smoking but due to some other reason. My brother used to smoke. One of my colleagues used to smoke and so did plenty of other people. In addition India has all kinds of pollution problems but still I don’t have any chronic ailment related with breathing other than dust allergy. I am prone to cold and cough right from my childhood once or twice in a year. I don’t think it has anything to do with passive smoking. However I am in way supporting smoking.
It’s always good to avoid smokers by everyone of us especially children as far as possible.
1
Both of my parents smoked, before the causal links between smoking and serious disease were established, and the term “second hand smoke” didn’t exist. Every morning before school I would have my breakfast in a kitchen clouded with smoke from my father having his couple of cigarettes before going to work. I didn’t need any research to find the choking agonising. I hated it that my parents, and later my brother, smoked. I now have moderate asthma and have had a lifetime tendency to lower respiratory infections. Needless to say, I have never smoked.
I use all of the author’s strategies to avoid other people’s smoke. I truly resent their smoking in my space even if it is public (a side effect of indoor smoking bans is to concentrate smokers in public places). They are overriding my health decision to not smoke and I don’t think they have any right to do that, any more than I have the right to blast a trumpet into their ear. Hearing, breathing; what’s the difference? Well, breathing is a bit more vital to life.
E cigarettes are better; the caramel-pineapple-bubble gum vapor is easier to walk in the wake of, but the chemical emissions are still a threat to my health.
3
I don't think Jane Brody is wrong at all. But public health would be much better served if we'd worry about all the plastics, chemicals, pesticides and insecticides. Our not so clean water and air.
It's a bit like the anti-smoking zealots who think nothing of going for a 5 mile jog during rush hour running alongside major roads.
This is number 47 on the priority list, or maybe 147. Smoking rates among adults have declined considerably and children are far more protected than ever from widespread bans on smoking in public places.
2
@drdeanster Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the US and globally, so despite the declines in smoking rates it should remain a top public health concern: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/e...
6
I am a retired elementary school principal and an asthmatic. My school was in an impoverished rural area. Many of our students were underfed who actually cried at the coming of extended vacations because they didn't get enough to eat at home. Their parents bought the cheapest food for them, including a lot of pasta, rice, and white bread. But most of these parents thought nothing of squandering their scarcity of money on cigarettes. Students came to school reeking of third hand smoke on their clothing, a stale, putrid odor that wafted through the hallways and permeated every classroom. Some parents dropped off their children in the morning and I would cringe seeing them exiting cars that were filled with smoke. Many of these children had respiratory disorders, no surprise at all, and I often pleaded with their parents to quit smoking. It was as effective as spitting into the wind. In fact, many of them became indignant and warned me to mind my business. It may sound radical, but I feel that if parents can be guilty of breaking the law by not placing their children in seat belt restraints, they should also be held to legal consequences for their smoking that sickens their children. If you can't reason with them, punish them by socking them in their wallets. I have seen many schools and colleges create smoke-free environments on their campuses. It's high time we make it illegal to hold children captive to smokers wherever they are.
7
Frightening. Both of my parents smoked. We took many a road trip when I was an adolescent with both of them smoking in the front seat while my brother and I sat in the back. When I became a parent, I remember my mother being incensed that I would not let her smoke in the car with my 4 year old (1984).
3
Jane is grasping for straws here with an anti-smoking tirade backed by frivolous evidence. There are too many important reasons to not smoke, especially for parents, to have to stretch for this.
5
My parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles were all smokers when I was growing up. Everybody did, it was the '60s. I had frequent ear infections as a child and had my tonsils removed because of the ear infections. Turns out I am allergic to tobacco. I had allergy testing done when I was 18 and was tested for pollen, trees, grasses, mold, etc. and tobacco. If the adults in my life had not smoked, I'd still have my tonsils.
1
My husband just came home from a presentation at our son’s school about the dangers of vaping. Unlike smoking it is easy to hide because there is no telltale stink. But the risks to young children from nicotine vaping residue found on surfaces are as bad as thirdhand smoke residue. Highly concentrated nicotine in these fruit flavored juices. Highly addictive, and potentially poisonous to babies and toddlers. 2.5 million new teen users are vaping. Primary prevention is critical because it is so addictive.
3
@Mary Owens
European studies checked vaping residue in homes of heavy vapers and found no or minuscule nicotine on surfaces in homes of heavy vapers. A major British medical advisory group examined every study they could find and found it at least 98% safer than smoking.And at a vaping web forum with thousands of members, most are adults who were able to quit a decades long smoking habit much more easily than using the standard approved nicotine replacement products.
Nicotine patches have a very high amount of concentrated nicotine. nicotine gum is likely to tempt children, nicotine lozenges come in flavors like cherry or orange or mint. These don't require a prescription, and current instruction say they can be used indefinitely.
@Amoret I live in UK and have never seen any reports citing vaping is "at least 98% safer than smoking". Can you.please quote your source? Vapers near me cause me to suffer asthma attacks, so are definitely not safe to be around! Considering the stink they emit and nicotine, not to mention the numerous harmful chemicals, I would expect residue to settle on indoor surfaces just like third hand smoke.
Third hand smoke is real without question. My Aunts residence where she smokes inside and has been for 30 years has yellow walls and ceilings from cigarettes. Sticky tar and nicotine residue covers nearly every surface. The odor, even when a lit cigarette is not burning is nearly unbearable. This strong odor is airborne toxins entering your lungs.
Why do you think rental properties charge a steep cleaning fee if you smoke inside? If you can smell it, you are inhaling toxins, no question about it.
9
I grew up with a mother who chain smoked and a father who smoked the occasional cigar and pipe. Is it any wonder that I had many respiratory illnesses as a child and developed asthma as an adult?
Meanwhile, I also smoked around my children until I quit for good at age 32. I'm sure this contributed to respiratory problems in one of my sons. I regret it, but I can't change it.
I'm glad to hear that pediatricians are having conversations with their patients' parents about smoking. No one should be exposed to smoke against their will.
I have had to give up visiting a chain smoking friend because I cannot breathe in her house. This is a decision that saddens me, but I don't regret it.
10
Well, here's another anecdote. My father smoked unfiltered Camels practically non-stop, and I grew up in a literal miasma of cigarette smoke. I have had chronic respiratory problems, often severe, all my life. My father died at 60. The last time I ever saw him was at my wedding, and I still can hardly bear to look at the pictures. Parents, please think of your legacy. Do you really want to leave your children a lifetime of illness, not to mention grief for your early death? And even if you believe that the correlation has not been proven, why on earth would you want to take a chance?
10
Lots of judgment in this article that really doesn't help the smoking parents out there. She makes it sound like not smoking is a simple choice, like deciding not to eat fast food because it's not healthy for your children. I'm pretty sure that beating nicotine addiction is not that easy.
7
@Already Gone
It isn’t. It is a horrible addiction akin to alcohol for many, in terms of difficulty of quitting...
THIS is one reason we have got to nip this vaping epidemic in the bud. These kids will become/are not only already addicted to nicotene delivered in vape withcompletely unregulated contents, they are at risk of moving on to other sources of nicotene to feed their habit—cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco.
2
I agree with your premise, but not with your alarmist conclusions, which seem fearfully extreme. A tiny fraction of children, just as adults with weak immune systems, have extreme reactions. Parlaying that into a massive medical dilemma is extreme...perhaps a Puritanical issue?
Have you cut communications off with members of your own family because of your fears? That to me is extreme.
Although I have no friends who still smoke, thankfully, I do have friends who vape. People with extremist views tend to group people who take an occasional vape as hazardous to their health, not willing to see that vaping is saving many lives, as it reduces the amount of carcinogens that they're inhaling. There have been no studies proving that vaping causes 2nd or 3rd hand hazards to others, yet extremists (possibly similar to yourself?) are jumping on the bandwagon to ban vaping. That has always been the problem with extremists. They throw the baby out with the bath water.
I wish that you would do an article on vaping for all the smokers trying to quit their habit, and support them without your hyperbole. That would be a great service, rather than castigating them.
That said, Jane Brody, I hope you keep writing your provocative articles as long as possible.
6
Though this is about tobacco, I’m interested in the effects of marijuana exposure. Living in CA, I was all for the decriminalizing or marijuana usage, just to keep people out of jail for a non violent offense. However now that it’s legal, people smoke all around me constantly-in our parks, the backyards that touch our own backyard, and in cars with windows open. It’s gotten to the point that if it’s a nice day or a holiday, I hardly feel comfortable taking my toddler outside (plus, I’m pregnant), due to the likelihood of encountering clouds of smoke.
I don’t know what the effects are, but they can’t be good.
12
@C
Amen...fine with liberalizing laws, but there need to be restrictions on where the MJ cigs are used. I do not like the smell, always have—makes me very nauseous, just like second-hand smoke, and many fragrances...
1
I hope we will soon take a look at the effects of second and third hand smoke on the elderly who live with younger family members who are smokers.
I am a recovering smoker, 36 years without using, and live with a younger person who smokes spliffs several times a day and is not always successful keeping it out of the house.
I feel like I am at greater risk than my former smoking self, simply because I am aging.
And, yes, I do wish there had been way more time between quitting and conceiving(only 2 years); I'm sure I wasn't clear of the toxins of smoking by the time I conceived.
4
I was struck by this:
"Society does not tolerate exposing minors to asbestos, arsenic, alcohol or lead, yet it acts as if exposing them to tobacco smoke is something different."
Seriously? There are lead exposure problems all over the country. If we really didn't tolerate it, we'd provide adequate funds RIGHT NOW to Flint, MI and other locations with lead-poisoned water.
18
My grandfather smoked cigarettes until he was in his 50s and then Cigars for 20 years or so until he finally quit. His lungs finally did kill him at 93. But it's important to note that he did a lot of physical labor all of his life and could and did walk several miles at a time hoeing weeds in the field until a couple of years before he died. And his parents, who were subsistence farmers in the mountains of Oregon, who never drank or smoked, both lived to be over 100.
Dad smoked until I was in high school and I was a sick child with asthma. But I was also overweight and mostly sedentary because exercise resulted in asthma and there wasn't a lot I had to do. My theory is that I was prone to asthma due to allergies but wouldn't have developed it if I hadn't been exposed to smoke. But I was and I became sedentary and fat and got worse. What I know though is that if I'm active and normal weight and not exposed to smoke, I don't have asthma attacks despite exposure to triggers.
5
Please! A considerate smoker (the kind that smokes away from children and non smokers who are bothered by it, lights up outside, etc) might be stinkier, but infinitely more pleasant company than the die hard anti smoker fanatics who demand others live by their creed. Also, shaming and fear has never helped anyone quit smoking, so if that is your purpose with this column I suggest you change tactics. Are you also worried about pollution and its effects on children's health? Do you also have a crusade against that? Or is that too impersonal? Intolerance masked as moral superiority is still intolerance.
13
Oh, here we go again, junk science parading as fact.
Secondhand smoke has been proven to be less harmful than the media has been pushing, and the lies surrounding thirdhand smoke simply refuse to die. The people pushing this malarkey are not unlike the ones who collectively cried "Danger!!" with the advent of electronic cigarettes (remember the horror stories about formaldehyde and antifreeze?).
I will not post links to all the opposing research -- it is voluminous -- but I will leave a few:
From the blog of Dr Michael Siegel, Professor in the Dept of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health:
https://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/02/anti-smoking-researchers-cl...
https://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/12/new-mantra-in-tobacco-contr...
https://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2006/09/without-sufficient-evidence...
Dr Siegel has formerly worked at the CDC and has written over 70 papers related to tobacco.
5
@LMW second hand smoke is dangerous as is third hand smoke! Only a smoker would argue otherwise!
@CathyB Actually, I have been in healthcare for over 20 years, working with cases across 25 states. In that time I have yet to see a single case of documented disease or adverse health effect directly or indirectly linked to "thirdhand smoke". And if secondhand smoke is responsible for as many deaths as has been reported, it is certainly not evident in the thousands of cases I see each year, numbering well over 300k to date.
For cases of COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, or certain cancers (head/neck, pulmonary) in nonsmokers with histories of secondhand smoke exposure, more often than not there is also listed some other form of chemical exposure in the patients' pasts (eg, chemicals used in the home or in work environments, coal/dust/smoke exposure in the workplace, asbestos, etc).
And, for the record, I am a nonsmoker.
@LMW, we bought a second hand car, after a short while we noticed a strange smell, we could not get rid of it. It affected both of us. We even tried professional cleaning. We had to sell it, and then our health improved, short term.
We now have the 2nd hand smoke from our neighbours, for 5 years, current lot throw their lit butts in our garden and left a lit one on a plastic chair to burn, next to our fence, 3ft from our door and window, imagine the smell from that coming into our house! During that time I have suffered from 2 unprovoked bouts of pulmonary embolisms, the first being extremely dangerous, been diagnosed with asthma and possibly bronchiectasis (tests still being undertaken). 2 Senior Chest Physicians have indicated that the smoke has been the cause! I have not been exposed to any work environment hazards, I worked in a Bank and then a Hospital, no asbestos either. I did for the first 21 years of my life live in a house where a coal fire was the only source of heat. My mother never suffered from asthma, however she smoked and suffered heart disease from smoking according to the GP, and my father died with heart disease at 62, he also smoked. MIL died of cancer and emphysema as FIL smoked, he died of lung cancer. They both ran a pub numerous years ago and she often said the walls and ceilings were coated from the thick smoke!
Therefore, according to my history smoke has been the major cause of health problems in both mine and my husbands families.
This is not good research. It does nothing but suggest some form of causality. There are far too many uncontrolled variables whether economic , cultural or even geographical. Too much of this pseudo type "research". Common sense is still your best bet.
8
My friend from high school died suddenly at age 30. It was horrible. I can't be sure it was her parents' heavy smoking, but I do know how much she hated it and wanted them to quit. The smell stuck to her clothes and hair and Shen worried about their health. Perhaps it was her health that was compromised.
2
My mother-in-law was a chain smoker, and as a child, her daughter instinctively knew how bad this was. As a little girl she took active measures to thwart her mother's tobacco addiction, hiding her cigarettes, and one time even dosing them with clove oil, whose dramatic burning sensation was a shocking message to her mother, but to little avail.
My mother-in-law, a life long smoker, was proud that she never got lung cancer, but lost a leg to peripheral vascular disease. My wife has had a healthy and active life, but remains susceptible to upper respiratory infections.
Children are sensitive and intuitive beings. Even as a child my wife knew what medical science has taken decades to show us.
15
The dangers to children from second-hand smoke are life long. When I was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the age of 65, my urologist told me my mother’s smoking was the most likely cause.
20
And the children of tobacco farmers? Are they also to be removed from their homes?
8
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that the World War II generation was purposely addicted to cigarettes. My dad went into the service as a teenager in '39 and wasn't out until '47, and the Army gave them free cigs. It made some sense when no one knew when they would have time for a meal when fighting their way across Europe. Nicotine was a helpful drug for soldiers. And all those soldiers came back with their habits and were emulated by the rest of the culture. The tobacco companies, the government, and Hollywood all let them think it was fine.
19
I believe this. My husband has talked all our married life (24 years) about how much his mother smoked. He said when she finished one cigarette, she immediately lit another. He's never smoked in his life, has been thin all his life, eats relatively healthily, yet he's had heart failure, a stroke, and cataracts in both eyes in his fifties. He's done everything almost all right, but everything came out all wrong.
12
Correlation does not equal causation. I suspect that the listed ill effects to children of smokers seem much more pronounced now, when smoking is relatively rare, looked down upon, and indulged in almost exclusively by the working class, than they were in the Mad Men days of the 1950s when virtually all adults smoked.
12
I have friends with children who make relatives who smoke shower and change their clothes before interacting with their children. The fascism of safety-obsessed parents has found yet another outlet.
22
News flash!
Addicts (of alcohol, heroin, nicotine, smart phones, etc). do not CARE who they might hurt by their excessive obnoxious behavior.
Cell phones remind a lot of tobacco. When I was a kid, you could be in a room full of non-smokers...and one smoker who gas all of us.
Today, you can be in a quiet room full of cell phone users...and someone will listen to some garbage video with the volume up.
Of course, texting while driving is more dangerous than drinking or smoking while driving. At like heroin addicts usually aren't driving.
5
It’s amazing to me how little people know about the current state of the foster care system. In Oregon, they’ve been putting kids in hotels with shift workers because there aren’t enough people volunteering (paid) to be foster parents. And lots of the kids are being taken out of homes after severe sexual/physical abuse. Good luck taking kids out for cigarette use! There would be absolutely no place to put them. And I really think just supporting parents to quit is the best policy - in the end it’s less traumatic fo kids, even if it’s imperfect.
14
Can we now apply the same logic to the burning of fossil fuels please?
24
Both parents and both sets of grandparents smoked. All six children in our family have some sort of respiratory issues. One has life threatening asthma.
11
I know a guy who's destroying his health with cigarettes. He's gone from age 25 to age 49 in 4 years, or so it seems. Doesn't make sense, but to his credit he smokes outside.
1
I don't get it. In Paris, where I lived, almost everyone seems to smoke. Yet the French live longer than Americans. (Maybe it's because they are generally slimmer than Americans. And also because they don't overwork, the way Americans do.)
25
They also have a universal single payer health care system.
32
@Abraham: Of course. I forgot to mention that.
1
Hate being around smokers. Have never smoked. Grew up with house and car filled with smoke from father, relatives and family friends. I am 55 and have none of the diseases some are claiming to be caused by second hand cigarette smoke. While my hatred of smoking would make it easy for me to jump on this bandwagon, I just don't think its true. Makes more sense that it is all of the other carcinogens in todays environment.
11
My mother was a nurse. She smoked through four pregnancies, smoked in the car with the windows rolled up, and puffed in our faces until 1970. Her first four children had low birth weights, numerous respiratory problems, lifetime bronchitis, and a myriad of heart problems and cancers.
By the time she had the fifth, she’d learned that smoking was hazardous to her health and she quit. She then had her first child over six pounds...healthy and strong. No respiratory problems.
So many health problems have been caused by second and third hand smoke. One wonders the health and monetary costs to our population and our health care system.
20
Born in the late 60s
- My mom smoked Cigarettes since she was 16 and is now 81 and doing well for a lifetime smoker. I now fully believe her smoking is keeping her alive.
- My father smoked Cigars throughout my childhood and quit about 15 years ago. He is 82 and other than Dementia and Alzheimer's is physically fine.
My siblings and I were exposed to 2nd hand smoke constantly - None of us smoke and none of us , knock on wood, have had ill effects (we are all in our 50s).
I guess our family has been lucky? Good Genes?
4
@Jake Anecdata - you were lucky.
10
@Jake If you are in your fifties you are young yet. Both my parents smoked--my dad almost 5 packs a day, mom 1 pack. I had problems with bronchitis and breathing all my life, but it wasn't considered that serious until I was in my fifties and the doctor said I have COPD--the third most frequent killer of people in America. i never smoked.
12
@Jake
both parents smoked [unfiltered until filters were added on], my mother chainsmoked. i have smoked for 50 years so far. no issues. one doctor sent me for lung xrays, then put the films up in front of me and said: didn't you tell me you smoke?
no one comes into my home or car and complains about smells or smoke, either.
3
I am beginning to smell marijuana smoke on the street and in lobbies nowadays. We still don't know the effects of second-hand marijuana smoke. It is probably less dangerous than cigarette smoke, but less dangerous is not the same thing as safe.
12
Marijuana is “safe” because it is becoming popular. Drinking alcoholic beverages is safe because it is very, very popular and most people consume. Smoking tobacco products is not safe because it is not popular. You won’t read many studies about the dangers of smoking marijuana or the foul aroma as presented in this article. Or the deaths and injuries caused by drinking alcoholic products or the impact of alcohol consumption on families and businesses.
21
@George Young
There is research and plenty of publications about alcohol and its effects. But people are in denial about some of the latest findings indicating linkages to many more types of cancers than originally postulated and the recent analysis that indicated that non-drinking was safest and that moderate drinking may not have the health benefits asserted.
I am not some extreme temperance activist but I do think we each have our blind spots when looking at our own or others habits and addictions.
And yes, more research does need to be done about marijuana.
3
I'm amazed to look back and remember my childhood environment. I was born in the 40's and throughout the next three decades smoking was everywhere. In the home, the workplace, restaurants, bars, and theatres, buses, streetcars, trains, and planes. Everywhere. My parents smoked unfiltered Camels, Lucky Strikes during most of my childhood. My father finally switched to filtered Kent cigarettes. Ashtrays throughout the house. My father died of congestive heart failure at 66 years old and my mother of metastatic lung cancer at 72. She told me the day she was diagnosed, "I wish I never started smoking". Both my brother and I have asthma. Both of us never smoked as teenagers or adults. Of course you could say we did consider all the 2nd and 3rd hand smoke we inhaled throughout the first decades of our lives.
18
“Our findings indicate that children carry tobacco smoke toxicants on their hands, even when nobody around them is smoking,”
My sister's idiot boyfriend, a smoker, lives with us. Even though he's not allowed to smoke in the house or on the property (and has at times claimed to have quit), I find my own hands smelling of cigarettes in the house -- oddly enough often just after washing and drying my hands in the master bath he doesn't use (my theory is that the myriad loops of terrycloth in the towel pick it up from the air).
Working late hours from home, down the hall from their bedroom I could often hear my sister cough repeatedly in the middle of the night --until shoulder surgery required her to sleep in a recliner in the living room: suddenly no more cough.
(And our dad died of lung cancer a month shy of his 55th birthday.)
I am so done with this stuff. And the idiot.
11
@John Drake, I think the time has come for society to stop calling them smokers, and start referring to them as "nicotine addicts" because that's exactly what they are. The sooner we start referring to them as that, the sooner the prospect of starting will be less appealing to teenagers.
1
Foster care agencies place children in homes with smokers especially if they agree to smoke out of the home, lol.
Quite an irony that kids are placed in safer environments only to be exposed to smoke residue.
10
This take is reminiscent of arguments people used to make against gay people: they are dirty, they are diseased, keep them away from children! Certainly there are toxic substances (many plastics, for example) that are far more prevalent and damaging than "third-hand smoke".
18
@Bryan Keller
Except that a) there is not evidence that gay people are any of those characteristics (unlike smoking), b) gay people do not choose to be gay and can't quit it in the way smokers can, and c) someone being gay doesn't intrude on my health directly like smoking does. Finally, yes, there may be more toxic substances but does that mean we shouldn't avoid the ones we know are toxic already and readily avoidable?
12
I suspect that industry was very happy to be taken off the hook for pollution of the air, water and ground when the blame was put on smoking, or was that the point? And yet, ask the restaurant or a church to put out those particulate polluting candles or even suggest that city dwellers stop burning wood in their fire pits, or bricket kin their BBQ and the screaming response is as foul as the pollutants.
11
My mother smoked and I've long wondered how my being exposed has affected my health. I'm 70 now and doing well, so I guess I dodged most of the bullets. Still, I wonder.....
One habit she had most certainly had an effect on me. While driving the car she'd often have the driver's window open (this was in southern California) and she'd flick the ash off her cigarette out the window. Of course that ash would be immediately blown/sucked into the backseat window adjacent to where I sat. This was awful as far as I was concerned and this young child vowed to never partake in such a disgusting habit as smoking. And I never have.
12
how about smoking pot? same effects?
2
I don't allow smoking in my house or even on my deck...it is completely vile. If I have guests who smoke I make them stay outside for at least 10 minutes afterward because the stench on them is unbearable. I wonder if they even know that they reek. Smokers with children think they are doing the right thing by smoking outside (by themselves or with their kid in a stroller) but when they come in the odor is overwhelming and all that third-hand smoke permeates everything and builds up.
I wish cigarette smoking was illegal.
16
The hazards of smoking have been established. The hazards of particulate matter in the air from combustion (including vehicles) have been established. But, Ms. Brody, do you use Febreze? dryer sheets? scented body care products, including lotions?
These are the things you should worry about, because they have not ever been tested for carcinogenic potential or any other health hazard including lung irritation. It simply isn't done. And yet, you will pick up paper towels from the grocery store reeking of detergent fragrance because they sit in the same aisle. Your recyclable grocery bag will be handed back to you stinking of hand sanitizer (and very likely ruined for future use, because industrial fragrances are even more difficult to remove than cigarette smoke residue). If you travel, your clothes will need to be laundered several times to take out the perfumes sprayed on public seats.
The very idea of "holding my breath when passing smokers outside stores and office buildings" made me laugh. Do you also rub your rabbit's foot? The emphasis on smoking as The One Evil is not only misguided, it's providing cover for all of these other substances that you are inhaling, absorbing, and even ingesting without knowing what they are doing to you or others.
56
@picklepuss I too either hold my breath or cover my nose and mouth when passing smokers as I know I will end up having an asthma attack, please also.laugh at that! Unless you suffer from exposure to smoke, you have no idea how it can harm others!
1
This is absurd. There is no possible way a study could control for all other variables and isolate smoking residue as a primary cause of illness when there are thousands of other carcinogens at work daily in our lives. I don’t smoke and find it rather gross but I find bad science even grosser.
53
Start charging such parents with child abuse and let's see how dramatically the problem decreases.
7
I’m sorry but this is the kind of ‘abundance of caution’ that has caused an entire generation of children to be susceptible to every little virus and illness that comes along. When we over protect our children then their immune systems cannot develop properly. The result is s generation of children with asthma, ADHD, and a myriad of other problems. Of course smoking is no good and should be eradicated. But stop using the children as an excuse.
16
The article is a good example of a more prevalent and dangerous addiction… the high we get from justified hate and the absurd lengths we will go to in rationalizing it.
I am a non-smoker.
46
To eliminate all risk, outlaw smoking.
6
Yeah, I’d smoke and drink like a chimney and a fish when I was in my 30s and 40s; ( 20 & 50), Now, because I quit it, I’m annoyed by that Marboro Light smoker (I’m very discerning) in the car that passes my house on a road 50 yards away from it. Living in the Santa Cruz tree hugger area where people are annoyed by (anything, especially) my car that has a ‘leetle’ smoking habit (It’s a diesel, like me), I’m realizing that General studies, w/ associated research, are helpful guiding people to their, or a more healthy life or just that studies and generalizations and most things should be taken as a whole, then on an individual basis; My compression is good ( 130/85, so is that of my car), And although I do have a problem with my sugar levels, I’ve become less sensitive or more immune to things like The dust blowers from rat infested areas, bee stings (meat-bees - wasps - don’t hurt more ‘n couple minutes), Rusty nail dirt wounds and other soil related wounds are sometimes hourly if not daily, skeeters don’t bother even biting - They’ve even the been eradicated (because of w. Nile) or they don’t like the taste
I probably won’t live past 90. What a Bummer! rusty nail dirt wounds and other soil related things
4
Like many other commenters, both my parents smoked. Their breath stank constantly. In addition to nicotine stains on the ceiling, there were burn marks on much of the furniture.
My main memory of family car trips is being violently car sick and having sinus irritation to the point that my upper teeth ached. I had asthma by the age of 2. I have never smoked and I avoid people who do.
They were good parents in general but they convinced themselves that smoking wasn't harmful and no one could tell them otherwise. Both died relatively young. Mom was gasping for breath for the last 2 weeks of her life.
18
This column ignores the multiple benefits these children receive from nicotine exposure, including documented improvement in focus, concentration and accuracy in performance. The other substances undoubtedly have beneficial effects as well, but these remain unstudied due to inherent biases against smokers.
6
@No
I am assuming this is facetious. But if not, I’d be very interested in citations for the “documented” benefits of exposure of children to nicotine.
13
Brody just described me in her first paragraph, an adult who wishes and has wished for decades, how she and I avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.
The first article I ever had published ( Phila Inquirer) was about confronting the secondhand smoke from a cigar in a fancy promiment celebrated restaurant. It was the mid-seventies.
Funny thing ( or not so funny), I was a child of a parent who smoked ( but said she didn’t inhale) and implored that parent for decades begging her to stop until her death from GI related issue before her 80th birthday.
Now, despite my clean living, good eating, exercise filled life, I am seeing a possible medical issue, perhaps related to my long term exposure to secondhand ( and third hand) smoke growing up.
10
I grew up with a girl whose house reeked of smoke. Both parents and her two brothers and her. Very nice people.
It was suffocating in there, my clothes smelled when I went home.
She died last month at 54 years old
One brother left
20
The article makes a point about nicotine saturated objects, homes and places. I agree that third hand nicotine is probably harmful to children, but at what level of exposure and to what degree? There are plenty of other environmental dangers out there that are not addressed at all, for example the pharmaceutical contaminants in our drinking supplies. Considering that young children are encouraged to drink almost entirely water, we still don't know how these things impact infant's and children's bodies for the long term. And there are so many other environmental toxins in our furniture, paints, plastics and glues. To me, this article smacks as heaping judgement on people who smoke, who also tend to be older, less educated, and addicted to a extremely addictive substance. Pretty soon we will be asked to bubble wrap the kids.
27
@Cary mom
Of course this article heaps judgement on smokers. That's the point. Smokers impose their poison on innocent bystanders, including kids.
Just because we cannot prevent exposure from all toxins doesn't mean we shouldn't prevent those we can. We do need pharmaceuticals and we do need to drive. We do not need tobacco, for any reason, at any time. So how about starting there: stop tobacco production and use.
39
@Cary mom
Why worry about cigarettes when Kim Jong-un could kill our children in their beds. And mattresses --do we really know what's in them. What about dust mites?!
If this article doesn't heap judgment on people who smoke I sure as heck will. There are now mountains of data and reams of studies confirming the affects this article describes. Only the willfully ignorant and the disinterested can claim not to know the dangers they're exposing not just themselves and other adults to, but kids, who as Ms. Brody points out, have no say or recourse.
Respectfully, your concern is misplaced.
11
"While fewer than 20 percent of Americans now smoke..."
it's interesting to note that there is significant variation in smoking rates across states, income groups, education groups. and while the article focused on children, it could have also mentioned employees at institutions whose customers (or other employees) smoke. think about restaurants, bars, casinos, and the areas that surround them. there can be significant variation in state laws for outside areas that allow smoking and areas inside casinos and bars, although most (all?) states now ban smoking inside of restaurants largely for the benefit of employees.
besides casinos and the great outdoors, homes might be one of the last refuges for smokers, which might be why the article focused on children.
it's also interesting to note how public smoking/emissions laws need to be updated for cannabis and nicotine vapor. smoked tobacco might soon disappear from public view, various kinds of drug use almost certainly will not.
4
@thomas bishop
Yes, vaping for sure...
1
Had to reread the piece after reading the comments: removing a child "because a parent smokes" would be cruel, if the parents are otherwise nurturing or at least adequate. A child will feel that s/he is the one being punished. And we will have made the parent an enemy!
But if a child is suffering multiple life threatening asthma or other health problems directly tied to the parent's smoking - maybe the threat of a removal is sane. If parents have a compulsion (like using crack or heroin) such that it repeatedly takes clear precedence over the child's health the questions become: are they ever able to put the child first? Is this child's life and health in immediate danger?
Still, trying to stop anyone from smoking entirely, to eliminate third hand exposure, is impossible, and on a pragmatic level, unenforceable.
Dr. Goldstein's comment about the dangerous exposures that "society does not tolerate" anymore causes a bit of cognitive dissonance: NYC allowed lead exposure in public housing; Detroit's water was unfit to drink, wells near the upper Hudson River had dioxin contamination. Those are a few of the widely publicized cases where 'society' could hardly be bothered with the health of the powerless.
Better public education is important. I don't mean just anti smoking efforts, I mean all education, the type which gives people more opportunities, which I see as the major antidote to preventing self-destructive behaviors from becoming rooted.
30
Millions of children growing up in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and into the 60s were exposed to cigarette smoke, daily, in all homes, offices, colleges, grocery stores, businesses. Given this piling on of blame for every cancer, every case of asthma, ear infections, colds......I’m absolutely amazed any of us survived. Given what we now know about the toxic soup from other environmental products, the latest seeming to be diesel fumes, I’m beginning to wonder if tobacco wasn’t the scapegoat we elected to take the blame for so much else. It worked....until, wonder of wonders, nonsmokers still had these same problems, and some, like asthma, seem to be worse.
Calling social services on smoking parents? Then also call them for parents who live next to interstates, who might still have flame retardant sofas, carpets, baby blankets.....and definitely call on parents who allow their kids to drink sugar sodas.....
And crib death? That was attempted years ago- until, I believe, a British study found sleeping positions (stomach sleepers) were mostly to blame. Enough already. Those original studies may have included adults fresh WWII, Korea, Vietnam. Let’s list some of the toxins war, infantry, can account for. And as I recall, the second hand smoke studies barely, barely, found a link.
Is smoking bad? Sure. Is it the lone demon.....hardly. Get real.
75
@Jo Williams I don't see where Brody says or implies that tobacco smoke is the sole cause of any malady - go ahead and attack that position, but it's not Brody's position. As for calling social services on smoking parents, that anecdote was in the context of a case where two children had serious respiratory issues that were clearly exacerbated by parents smoking in their presence - not the general case of smoking parents. It's hard to argue that this was responsible parental behaviour in this case. Do you so argue?
26
Parents who continue to smoke around sick children with respiratory illnesses- I again refer to the millions of children who were in that position for decades. Does this family live next to an interstate, with clouds of diesel fuel lingering over their neighborhood? Air fresheners in the house? What else....pesticide residue coming in open windows? Genetic dispositions to certain conditions? No....it’s the smoke. Don’t look behind the curtain. At our chemical society.
7
@Jo Williams I live in a neighborhood of apartment buildings, busses and cars. For years, there was black exhaust with lead particles from busses and cars as you walk the street and black soot from buildings burning cheap oil which would come into your apartment. These pollutants abated only a few years ago.
final solution. get rid of smokers of tobacco and pass us that joint. we are tired of the preaching from those not addicted. quit driving.
7
@Danny Keep smoking all you want. It’s your right. But don’t impose your choice and deadly chemicals on others.
6
Smoking continues to decline; lung cancer continues to increase. Isn't it time to investigate other environmental causes? To attribute every case solely to smoking when many smokers do not develop cancer and many non-smokers do, leads to ignoring possible triggers from factory pollution, etc. and therefore taking us away from solving the problem.
33
@JsBx
I've noticed - a friend with COPD has definitely noticed - and there was even an article noting that the air in Westchester County is more polluted now than it had been for a while. Certain laws were passed, somethings got done, but then people stopped paying close attention. California level restrictions are necessary. The problem is regional - pollutants don't abide by state and national boundaries. It is also local: if enough people burn firewood, for example, in inefficient stoves and fireplaces, that smoke can become a serious issue. As can lawn mower emissions, not to mention vehicular emissions. Sometimes "we" people are our own worst enemies, and ignore habits other than smoking which cost lives.
14
@JsBx Everyone I know with COPD is or was a smoker.
8
@Maureen
Actual statistical studies show 10-20 percent of people with COPD never smoked.
2
I was the child of two heavy smokers. Given my memories of never feeling like I could breathe in the smoke-saturated air of our home or car, I have always hated cigarettes, never smoked them, and avoid people who smoke. Although those years are long gone and I am generally very healthy, I have always been susceptible to upper respiratory infections and bronchial problems. I have no doubt that (hopefully at an advanced age) my lungs will be my undoing.
39
@J.I too grew up around parents and adults who smoked incessantly. I am now 72 years old and have COPD. All during my childhood I suffered from lung and sinus issues and missed school due to this toxic environment.
20
@John Diehl And remember riding in planes with the “smoking or non smoking” choice? What a joke. I wonder if there have been any scientific studies about the flight attendant’s health from that era?
2
Me, too.
3
it is the dose that makes the difference not the mere presence of the myriad of substances present in cigarette smoke. Whilst no doubt many of these components can be harmful, the question remains whether the doses and times of exposure that 2nd and 3rd hand smokers could receive significantly or even measurably increase their risk of adverse effect. The American Cancer Society attributes 87% of lung cancers to smoking, yet only about 10% of smokers develop lung cancer. My view is that smoking bans/restrictions in general are beneficial from an overall public health but I believe articles that do not address the dose and time of exposures do not contribute to a clearer understanding of the risk associated with the substances in question.
28
You neglect to grasp that people who smoke around their children also love their children. They’re addicted to one of the most powerful drugs on earth. Huge economic forces in this nation promote their addiction, and fail to support healthy parenting choices, safe working conditions, or good health care for mothers. I’m again stunned at the unanimity of NYT commenters in judging those you don’t know and those who differ from you. The world isn’t black and white. Children are always better off with loving parents who are doing their best. Smoking is in no way the same as hitting your kid. (I get that it can be...there’s rolling up the windows in the car and lighting up when your kid’s wheezing — but most parents aren’t smoking in order to hurt their kid. They’re trying to get through their own day, just like you).
Absolutely let’s prevent any young person from starting smoking. Let’s encourage any parent, or anyone around a child, to quit. Let’s educate everyone about how harmful smoking is for developing lungs and DNA. And every time a child has a respiratory illness, let’s revisit.
But remove children from parents just because they’re smokers? Come back to earth. For this, they call us elitists.
100
@Ace J,
Actually, I would go one step further. Removing a child solely because a parent smokes may itself be abusive.
9
@Ace J
At the point where a parent's smoking causes illness in a child, this is child abuse. It's not about removing children from their parents "just because they're smokers." It's about protecting the children's health.
These parents have choices, quitting, smoking away from their children and outside their homes and cars, etc. If they choose not to modify their behavior, they are saying that their children's health is not as important as access to their drug of choice.
2
I am a fairly old person who grew up in a blue collar industrial town. Both my parents smoked constantly and every other adult I ever saw in my childhood smoked constantly. Meaning, that all the kids and everything in our environment was completely drenched in cigarette smoke, 24-7 for our entire childhood. We never knew the difference. My siblings and I all survived it with no problems, but nevertheless I did not ever take up the habit.
Years later, after public smoking was finally banned and eradicated, for the first time I experienced the complete absence of cigarette smoke. It was a revelation. I learned that people who smoke, reek of the smell, whether they know it or not. I don't like to be around smokers, and I avoid it when I can.
In spite of all that, I think this article is more of an overstated diatribe than anything else. I simply do not believe all these dire statements about the health dangers of third-hand smoke. Lots more kids have asthma now than ever did back in the smoke-saturated 50s, why is that? But sure, let's try to stop kids from ever starting the terrible habit of smoking.
89
@Madeline Conant
One aspect of the stats and articles cited that was not explained is whether there were controls for confounding variables and, if so, what variables were controlled.
5
Both of my parents smoked. My Mother died when I was 17 from Pall Malls and my Dad died at 77 from lung cancer mets to his brain. Thankfully, both parents died quickly. Both parents had long gaps of being non-smokers.
My brother smokes. I smoked exceedingly stupidly in my early 20s, usually with friends in bars. Thankfully, I was not addicted and I quit.
I take exception with the reference that society does not condone alcohol exposure in children & fetuses. Owing to the fact that 50% of pregnancies are unintended and women may be unaware of their pregnancy during the period when the embryo and brain is forming, it seems that exposure to alcohol and tobacco smoke *IS* tolerated, and intentional or not, children's developing brains and bodies ARE affected. It IS acceptable to society.
6
Thank you, I live with the after effects of living with a smoker from birth to age 18.
It is both life limiting, and expensive for medications to manage the effects of living with a smoker as a child.
I used to draw skulls, coffins, and other death symbols on the cigarettes, even made an ashtray with out a bottom in the 3rd grade. It was ignored.
I still have the ashtray.
21
@Chris C
I lived with smokers from birth to age 40. I had intermittent mild asthma for a few years but nothing too life threatening.
I am now 70 and am able to walk a 20 minute mile easily.
My story is not any more validating to this article than yours, but that is all they are......stories.
5
I became an involuntary smoker the day I was conceived by my then 20 yo mother. I was forced to breath smoke and cigarette byproducts through my gestation and am certain I came out addicted to nicotine. And I had no problem in maintaining my addiction throughout childhood because my mother, step-father's, uncles, aunts, grandmother and nearly everyone I knew or encountered seemed to be a smoker and had no problems smoking in cars, elevators, in the MD's office, in the supermarket, everywhere!
Maybe this is why I was addicted to cigs for many years myself and eventually developed mild emphysema. Thankfully, I quit 6 years ago and although I have some shortness of breath, at least I haven't developed lung cancer yet.
Thanks mom!
20
A person will exhale smoking related particles for about 45 minutes after s/he finished smoking a cigarette. So that is yet another source of harm.
And yes, smoking is a disgusting habit.
32
Two days ago I saw a woman who was at least eight months pregnant smoking long skinny cigarette outside the show animal barn at the Oklahoma State Fair. I bet all of her children (she surely has a passel) have diseases, and more likely than not, Medicaid is paying.
8
James, I abhor cigarette smoking. Despite that, there are so many generalizations in your comments that are so judgmental. How can you tell by looking at her that she "surely has a passel" of children? How on earth can you tell by looking at her that she is on Medicaid?
14
My generalization is that someone who would smoke while pregnant probably doesn't procreate responsibility and probably doesn't have enough job skills to pay for her children's healthcare. I could be wrong about Medicaid. It could be that she can't be bothered to apply for it. There is also a good chance she supports Trump, although I doubt she voted.
@James, you are probably right about the woman at the OK state fair; she probably does have several children. The statistics on who smokes and the correlation between low-education, smoking, young parenting, and multiple children make it possible you are exactly write. And, she probably supports Trump. The statistics make that likely too. However, the generalization extends to you, too. You are a man attending the Oklahoma state fair. One could draw conclusions about you, too. I might even think you look and behave like a lot of the middle aged men who love in my affluent, suburban neighborhood. They are mostly all white, over weight, eat trans fats and feedlot meat, and don’t think twice about the Roundup the spray on their lawns. We tax payers are paying for this, too. But they are “educated”. What’s their excuse?
1
i wonder if Jane holds her breath while walking past all the cars putting out ton's of carbon monoxide poison?
smokers used to have smoking areas, usually tucked away, out of sight. once they were removed by people like Jane, what did you expect, that all these smokers would somehow magically quit? of course, they ended up on the sidewalks and out front of buildings. this is a consequence of your actions.
my pet peeve and danger to my health is the overuse of strong
perfumes and colognes which bring on an acute histamine attack. i walk past mothers w/ infants who wear a ton of perfume while holding the baby to their chest. another reason asthma is so prevalent in kids?
49
@scootter1956
The histamine thing is often a sum of the various chemicals we are exposed to. Supermarkets with decoy scents of breads and spices, cleaning products supposedly "fresh", the omnipresent laundry detergent and softener fragrances together with your perfume cocktails and many m.a.n.y more compositions - ON TOP of the formaldehyde, building chemicals, paint fumes, solvents in addition to the handy chemicals in our often inexpensively produced clothing ---- all publicly get the back seat to a cigarette.
Someone's cig closes my sinuses for 5 minutes; a dash into a supermarket leads to much worse.
I can choose to avoid one or both - and funnily enough I love the smell of a freshly lit cigarette.
5
Third hand smoke is easily noticed, especially by nonsmokers. I have trouble staying in a hotel room previously occupied by someone who smoked (but who did not smoke in the room). Rental cars also give me a headache because of the lingering tobacco smell. We recently had guests stay at our Air BnB who never smoked in the house, yet the smell was everywhere.
I think smokers, as a whole, make every attempt to respect the desires of others to have smoke free air. They already have limited seating opportunities in restaurants, as well as hotel options. Yet, unlike other bad habits, there's no hiding this one. The unwanted smell lingers and spreads. What' more is that this article notes that it is more than just the smell that is spread, but "remnants."
How do we protect others from smoke exposure, while respecting the dignity of those who smoke?
20
One just can't have it both ways, unfortunately. We can't both give smokers freedom and "dignity" as well as protect the public. Especially given the extent to which these remnants spread. Short of requiring smokers to shower and bleach themselves and their clothes after every smoke, or more drastically - put a total ban on smoking altogether, there is just no way to truly prevent the spread of these remnants. What we can do, however, is start by protecting the most vulnerable. Even if it is logistically not feasible to remove children from smoking parents' households (overburdened system etc.), we could impose bans on smokers who work with children. A smoker should not be employed as a teacher, daycare worker, hospital staff, public transit staff, museum staff or any other profession that comes into contact with children or sick and vulnerable people. Doesn't matter if they don't smoke on the premises and only at home - as this article shows, that is not enough to contain the spread of remnants. Maybe limiting smokers' job opportunities will motivate them to seek help and quit smoking. Putting other bans in place and raising cigarette prices clearly worked - look at the dramatic drop in smoking rates in this country since those measures were implemented. If bans and restrictions worked to get us thus far, then ramp it up even more to go even further! As far as we need to go until the rest of us are protected.
22
@DH There is a term for your suggestion to "limit smoker's job opportunities"- it is called discrimination.
Your short sighted proposal fails to take into account the socio-economic factors that accompany smoking. Statistically, the bulk of smokers are in a lower income and education bracket, which also tends to correlate with the type of service jobs that work with children and the elderly. Your "ban" to "protect the most vulnerable" would just harm a different vulnerable group of people via loss of income and opportunity. The harmful impacts abound.
I don't think that any of us are in a position of moral superiority to determine who deserves to lose their "freedom" and "dignity" in this case, but the premise of your proposal and (more so) condescending tone suggests otherwise.
2
@VA Mama
We need to do more to help people quit.
I smoked for 20 years, wanted and tried to quit for at least the last 15. Quitting smoking is unbelievably difficult. I've never met a real smoker who didn't wish he/she had never started.
Both of my parents smoked as did many friends and relatives. Other than a handful of coworkers I'm not close to, I don't know anyone who smokes. Most quit in response to price due to increasing taxes or social pressure/intolerance. I quit when I became pregnant. People do respond to incentives.
Dr. Goldstein's assertion that society does not tolerate the exposure of children to lead, asbestos or arsenic seems a bit naive as to what we are ALL exposed to in our increasingly contaminated world. Children are required to attend schools where their water fountains spew forth lead contaminated water and where their playing fields are treated with pesticides. There is air pollution from cars and energy generation. At home, there are strong and dangerous cleaning products, air fresheners, lawn care chemicals, outgassing furniture, outgassing plastic food containers, wrappings and dishes.... the list goes on. And in some places (like where I live) NALAD raining down from the sky sprayed by mosquito control agencies. Yes, smoking IS BAD but so are all these other things! Time maybe for the accountants to start accounting for pollution?
57
@Lee Bellavance
Neither you nor the author mention marijuana usage we tolerate in teens, nor the e-cigarettes they buy with their pocket money, nor their use of "nutritional" supplements to improve athletic performance that we tolerate/encourage, nor their exposure to stimulants in the drugs they receive for ADD/ADHD but which conveniently also increase concentration for academic performance short-term. Second-hand smoke is only one of many problems in their environments.
And since smoking is demographically linked, studies showing worse outcomes for kids exposed to it must demonstrate a robust attention to this bias.
8
We need more media attention to this issue and it's many facets. Jane E. Brody, I am the same way as you describe of avoiding this epidemic, but I consider it a violation of my fundamental human rights that I should have to go out of my way to avoid exposure to this toxic poison. I must point out that I think you statement that a quarter of Americans smoke. The most recent average according to the CDC is 15.5%. That is the average, but by region or community that number can be higher or lower.
11
@William
Having grown up in a home with one chainsmoker and another heavy smoker, I believe that children should be removed by CPS from homes where smokers are present. I think the only reason that this hasn't happened already in our nation is that CPS has a hard enough time as it is just finding homes for the children they do remove. No state budget can accommodate a sudden influx of babies and children on the state's welfare rolls.
But so much more should be done to separate children (and adults) from this scourge. Why should children's health be sacrificed to their parents' addictions?
I hear so often that we should have compassion for addicts (and I do consider smokers addicts). I agree that we should absolutely have compassion for them. But one can have compassion for addicts while also insulating ourselves from the terrible effects of their choices. And choosing to continue buying cigarettes, rather than spending that same amount of money on the patch or other form of smoking cessation, IS a choice.
I don't support condemning addicts. I am, however, supportive of any steps that make it harder and harder for smokers to get their fix... including removing their children from their custody until smokers can prove that they are, and will remain, tobacco-free. In other words, they have to prove that their kids are more important to them than their compulsion to smoke.
24
@Josa, Smoking in a house with children is the same as feeding children junk food: many become overweight or obese, their health suffers, their lives may be shortened. Both should be considered child abuse.
2
Seriously? You think you would have been better off if the STATE had taken you away from your own parents? I would not say the same--though glad my own mom quit 40 years ago, and am sure she is too.
14
Both my parents smoked...heavily. Father died of heart disease at age 63. Mother lived to age 77; it was horrific to see her at the end of her life...struggling to breathe with tubes inserted everywhere in her body - emphysema. As a child, I missed fully one half of school days due to bronchitis. I could not exercise like other children because of shortness of breath. I was diagnosed with COPD at age 30. Because I had a wonderful job with very good health benefits, I've survived to age 71 but with many health problems. I hope I can make it to age 77, the age my mother died. I will never forgive my parents for what they have done to my health.
67
It is always shocking to me how lightly people take nicotine, given all the known dangers and all the degrees of exposure and their effects, compared to much less dangerous substances, like pot, which are labelled evil and persecuted like poison. Nicotine is worse in every way, and yet smokers act like they're somehow entitled, and everybody else is okay with it and allows it...
That being said, we need to pat ourselves on the back for the great strides and accomplishments in this area, and the constant effort to do better. This is one area where the US actually does way better than Europe, when in other ways it's the opposite - regulation-averse US vs. strict-regulation Europe. Somehow, we've managed to pull way ahead and are thus enjoying much cleaner air and better health when it comes to smoking. I travel to Europe with my kids every year to visit family, and we are always appalled by the level of smoking we see there. It's so nice to come back and breathe a breath of fresh air. By all means, we should keep pushing forward and eradicate smoking as much as humanly possible. Or at least limit its impact to the smokers themselves, and protect everybody else whom they have the nerve to impose their poison on, through any degree of exposure.
32
@DH
Agreed. And this is trivial compared to most problems smoking causes in Europe, but the alluring outdoor cafe and restaurant terraces in the world's most visited country, France, are where smokers are allowed to take refuge now. What a disappointment.
7
nicotine hurts people ?
1
I grew up in a smoke filled home in the 50s and 60s. My mother smoked 2 packs of Lucky Strikes a day. As a result, I have never smoked even a single cigarette in my life.
55
@CindyKSo did I. My Mother said she knew at 3 months I would never smoke. She said she never saw a baby show such disdain, but they kept smoking till they died in their early 40's. I have asthma and smoking is my worst trigger. I miss so much in life because there is smoking there. St. Louis has an amazing fireworks display, but I had to stop going because there is smoking.
20
My mother was a chainsmoker for over 30 years. My father was also a heavy smoker. Though I understood that they were addicted to nicotine (and I felt much compassion for them), I would not wish growing up with smokers (or around smokers) on anyone. Growing up, there were times when I wished that I could be removed from our home and re-settled into another (smoke-free) house. Smokers just have no clue how deeply their smoking affects other people.
The first thing my mother did when she woke up every morning was reach for her cigarettes. As a child, the only time I remember her without a lit cigarette was when she was sleeping. Her need to smoke came first, before absolutely everything else. Our entire lives revolved around it.
Our house stank. The walls and floors were stained an ugly yellow from the ever-present nicotine haze. Our hair, clothing and backpacks reeked of cigarettes. The kids at school wouldn't let me sit with them or play with them because I smelled like an ashtray (I was so embarrassed). Non-smoking parents wouldn't let their kids come over to my house to play (I didn't blame them). My parents' breath smelled so badly from their smoking that I learned to hold my own breath whenever they talked to me.
But worst of all were the personality changes that occurred in my parents as they saturated themselves with the poison of nicotine. My mother was often angry, short-tempered and impatient. She yelled a lot. Nicotine changed her. And in the end, it took her.
102
@Josa Did you ever know your mother as a non-smoker? She may have been self-medicating. A lot of people with "difficult" personalities (or personality disorders, mental illness, call it what you will) use alcohol and/or nicotine to cope with themselves.
7
@Kay Tee
I agree. When I went to visit a friend in a mental hospital (designed for short-term stays), the patients were living in a fog of cigarette smoke and most of them were puffing like crazy. There were air purifiers in every room, but they didn't do much good.
My mother was high-strung. She lived on black coffee, cigarettes and Valium, which probably all worked against each other.