"First with Kids" | Vermont Children's Hospital


	"First with Kids"
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Lewis First, MD offers parents and children tips for staying healthy and safe in his weekly First with Kids segments. Always delivered with enthusiasm and humor, First with Kids can be found on WOKO radio 98.9 FM, WCAX-TV Channel 3 and in the Chittenden County Newspaper Group papers.

Dr. First is Chief of Pediatrics at the Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont College of Medicine.

This week Dr. First offers tips on:

Secondhand Smoke

October 13, 2008

Parents have recently been out of breath with lots of questions regarding the effects of secondhand smoke on their infants and children. So this week let me cough out some information on this important topic.

Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke, is the smoke that is given off from the end of tobacco products or that has been exhaled. Sixty percent of three-to-eleven-year-olds are exposed to secondhand smoke. This smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, more than 50 of which (including tar, carbon monoxide, cyanide, and nicotine), are cancer-causing agents.

These chemicals increase a child’s risk, even early in their lives, for leukemia, lymphoma and later in life, lung cancer. Yet cancer is not the only problem. Since the lungs of children are not fully developed, the chemicals in cigarette smoke can inflame and injure their lungs, resulting in 25,000 new cases of asthma and up to 300,000 new cases of pneumonia per year in the United States. Secondhand smoke has also been associated with an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome and an increase in childhood ear infections.

Even though the number of people who smoke in this country and in our state may be decreasing, it is still estimated that 20% of children are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes.

So what can you? If you smoke, do whatever you can not to smoke in your home and your car, since substances stay in the air even after you are done smoking. If you must smoke in the home, limit the smoking to rooms where windows can be left open and/or fans used to move the smoke outside. In addition, it is a good idea to make sure your child’s day care, school, and after-school programs are smoke-free. Of course, quitting tobacco is the best solution: call the Vermont Quitline (1-877-YES QUIT) or the American Lung Association at 1-800 Lung-USA.

Hopefully, tips like these – and we’re not talking filter tips – will help you understand how important it is to protect your child from secondhand smoke.

Lewis First, MD is chief of pediatrics at the Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont College of Medicine. You can also catch "First with Kids" weekly on WOKO, 98.9 FM and now on WCAX-TV, Channel 3. Visit www.vermontchildrens.org to access all of this year's First with Kids segments.