New Year’s Resolutions: Smoke-free Homes
Second-hand smoking is dangerous, especially for children. The best way to protect loved ones is to quit smoking. At the very least make sure you have a smoke-free home and car.
- A smoke-free home protects your loved ones
- Smoking at home will impact everyone living and visiting your home. The toxins within cigarette smoke can remain in your home for 5 hours, and can quickly spread from room to room despite doors being closed
- By stopping smoking, you’ll help protect your non-smoking friends aswell as your family.
- Breathing in secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.
- In children, it doubles the risk of chest illnesses, including pneumonia, ear infections, wheezing and asthma.
- They also have three times the chance of lung cancer in later life compared with children living withnon-smokers.
Passive Smoking:
1) When friends and family breathe in your secondhand smoke, it isn’t just unpleasant for them; it can damage their health too.
2) People who breathe in secondhand smoke regularly are more likely to get the same diseases as smokers, These include lung cancer and heart disease.
Children and passive smoking:
1) Passive smoking is especially harmful to children as they have less well- developed airways, lungs and immune systems.
2) Children who live in a household where at least one person smokes are more likely to develop:
- asthma
- chest infections – like pneumonia and bronchitis
- meningitis
- ear infections
- coughs and colds
Children are particularly vulnerable when travelling in family vehicles where second-hand smoke can reach high levels despite leaving windows open. To protect children, a ban on smoking in cars and other vehicles carrying
children was introduced in October 2015. It is now against the law to smoke in a private vehicle if there’s an under 18 present.