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EPA Tries to Keep Smoke From Kids

By: John Heilprin
Source: Associated Press
Published: October 16, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Government and health officials hope to clear the lungs of millions of children exposed to secondhand smoke each year by encouraging parents who smoke to light up outdoors.

The Environmental Protection Agency launched a public relations campaign Tuesday asking parents to sign pledges to voluntarily refrain from exposing their children to the secondhand smoke given off by cigarettes, pipes and cigars, or exhaled from lungs.

"People who smoke inside their homes or anywhere around their children really have two options: quit or take it outside. And that's the message," said EPA Administrator Christine Whitman, joined by doctors at Children's National Medical Center.

Whitman said "Children exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes are especially vulnerable to respiratory illnesses such as asthma, because they absorb greater concentrations of smoke than adults do".

"We know secondhand smoke is one of the asthma triggers for which we should be watching," Whitman said. "We're not telling parents to stop smoking. We're just asking them to use a little common sense."

The EPA has found that children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from bronchitis and pneumonia, wheezing and coughing spells, ear infections and more frequent and severe asthma attacks.

Secondhand smoke has been classified by the EPA as a known cause of lung cancer in people, resulting in several thousand lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers each year.

Joining the EPA in the $1.5 million campaign are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, the Consumer Federation of America and the National Association of Counties.

"The ultimate step after making the home smoke-free is to make the smoker smoke-free," said Dana Best, a pediatrician.

The counties' organization agreed to help gather parent signatures to commit to smoking outside as part of the overall public relations health campaign.

The consumer group said a new survey indicates that 70 percent of parents who smoke and who claim to have been previously unaware of the harmful effects would take their tobacco outside to protect their children.

"We don't think the public is very aware of how many children are involuntary victims of secondhand smoke," said Jack Gillis, the group's public affairs director.

The National Cancer Institute has said there are links between secondhand smoke and sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, new cases of childhood asthma and behavioral and cognitive problems in children.