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Home › Articles › Toddler Health › Smoke Into the Mouths of Babes

Smoke Into the Mouths of Babes

The Effects of Secondhand Smoke on Babies and Toddlers

By Lisa A. Goldstein

Pages:  1  2  3  

Babies and toddlers are especially vulnerable because their lungs and immune systems are still developing and therefore are severely affected by exposure to secondhand smoke. "Children are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults and have little control over their indoor environments," Dr. Rabinoff says.

Health can improve if there is no longer secondhand smoke exposure, Dr. Moss says. However, developmental lung changes as a result of secondhand smoke can be lifelong problems, says Dr. Michael Kasper, a radiation oncologist who is president of the Florida division of the American Cancer Society.

"Some doctors are now calling exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke a legal form of child abuse," Dr. Rabinoff says. "Organizations such as Action on Smoking and Health are now recommending that when a child is brought in for medical attention for a problem caused by secondhand tobacco smoke, if talking to the parents doesn't work to stop the child's exposure, that physicians should file a formal complaint of suspected child abuse (or child neglect or reckless endangerment) the same as they would if a child were regularly being subjected to other toxic and carcinogenic substances like asbestos or benzene."

Quitting for the Children
Because he didn't want the cigarette smell and secondhand smoke in the house and on fabrics for his child to inhale or smell, Tsvi Marder of Wynnewood, Pa., smoked outside the house only and never around his child at any time. "My kids never saw me smoke, but my wife was still very concerned, rightfully, that [if they saw me, it] would not set a good example," he says. He eventually quit, partly due to his children's health.


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