Home and Car Press Releases

Tobacco Exposed. Kids, Eat Your Veggies!

CONTACT:
Paul McIntyre or
Anne Naughton
(916) 780-0226
Immediate Release: February 20, 2003

It's not an easy task to get kids to happily scarf down their broccoli and brussel sprouts, but now, for children exposed to secondhand smoke there's an even more important reason to get them to do just that.

According to a 2003 report by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and perhaps even take a multivitamin as a safety net. That's because, in addition to the serious health risks of secondhand smoke like asthma and child cancers, secondhand smoke also saps nutrients directly out of kid's blood.

Particularly important antioxidants like beta-carotene, are especially depleted. Beta-carotene is essential for kids because it forms vitamin A in the body. Known as the anti-infective vitamin, vitamin A enhances the activity of the immune system. Good sources of beta-carotene include carrots, tomatoes, cantaloupe and mangos.

Investigators have also found that children who were exposed to secondhand smoke in the home, have lower blood concentrations of vitamin C to children of nonsmokers. Vitamin C is needed for normal growth and development and is a powerful antioxidant, which means it helps neutralize cell-damaging substances in the body called free-radicals. Good sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits, strawberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, red cabbage and potatoes. Taking a vitamin C supplement may also be a good idea.

Forty-three percent of children are exposed to secondhand smoke in their own home, according to the American Lung Association. While quitting is always the best answer, for kids' health as well as the smokers', it's not always the easiest.

Kids Involuntarily Inhaling Secondhand Smoke (KIISS), a Roseville, California based non-profit organization, recommends that smokers go outside to smoke. Anne Naughton, project director of KIISS, says, "For the health and well-being of your child, it is extremely important that they are not exposed to tobacco smoke. Kids can inhale the equivalent of 102 packs of cigarettes by the age of 5 from repeated exposure! The best thing you can do, next to quitting, is to not smoke in your home or car".

Causing the depletion of valuable nutrients, as well as potentially more serious diseases, it's easy to see how exposure to secondhand smoke can be so damaging. Yet most parents are unaware of this problem, and therefore underestimate the threat of secondhand smoke to their children.

Smokers know about the dangers of their habit, after all, the warning label is stamped right on the pack. But secondhand smoke doesn't come with a warning label. If it did, perhaps more parents wouldn't light up around their kids.

KIISS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating kid's involuntarily inhalation of secondhand smoke and it's multiple health risks. If you would like a KIISS Kit with more information about the dangers of secondhand smoke for kids, please call 916-780-0226 or visit the web site at www.kiiss.org.