The Royal College of Physicians have just put out a report on smoking: Passive smoking is a major health hazard to children- sudden infant death, asthma, wheeze, meningitis, middle ear disease can all be caused by it and they want more to be done to prevent these problems – particularly in children.
There is an irony in that people in public houses are now better protected against smoke than children who live with smokers. And yes, most smokers want to give up – and most parents who smoke, I find, do so with guilt and out of the back door. Here are a couple of the proposals:
- It is important to promote smoke-free homes through mass media campaigns, advice and support from health professionals to smokers, and new approaches such as substituting cigarettes with medicinal nicotine
- Smoke-free legislation should be extended much more widely, to include public places frequented by children and young people, and to prohibit all smoking in cars and other vehicles; media campaigns are needed to explain the need to avoid exposing children to smoking as well as to smoke
…and while I can see why, it seems a bit illogical to me to stop adults on their own from smoking in their own cars.
Margaret McCartney
Clive Cookson
Andrew Jack