Homes and Cars

Options for creating a smoke-free home:

1. Create a 100 percent smoke-free home. This is the safest way to protect your children. This would require the parent or guardian to quit smoking or smoke only when away from the home or outside the home - on the porch or in the backyard.
2. If smoking outside is not an option, request that the adult allow no smoking in the home while the children are present. You might also request no smoking be allowed for a period of time before the child is in the home (for example 12 hours) as it can take many hours for smoke to completely exit the home. Remember that smoking should never be allowed where children sleep.
3. If the above to options are not realistic, request that one room be made a smoking room. Visitors would be limited to smoking only in this room as well. This room should be one the child does not enter. The door should be kept closed, and it should be kept well-ventilated by opening windows. This option does not do much to protect children from secondhand smoke, as smoke still travels throughout the home, and contaminants settle with dust on furniture and carpets. This could be an interim step on the road toward a smoke-free home.
4. Don't forget the car. Secondhand smoke in the small confines of a car is just as dangerous as in the home. The adult should never smoke in the car with the windows closed or in the car with the children present. Request that the adult smoke prior to driving, if the journey is going to be short. If the car ride will be longer, ask that they stop and step outside the car, away from the children.
5. Adults should never smoke while washing, dressing, or playing with a child.
6. Smoking by friends or relatives in the other parents' home or in places frequented by the child (ex: grandparents' home) is a valid concern, and can be addressed as well.