Secondhand smoke in apartment buildings makes it hard to breathe easy

 

There is no safe level of secondhand tobacco-smoke exposure, according to the US Surgeon General.

Now a new report in the December journal Pediatrics says even if you aren't lighting up, the addiction next store could be putting your kid's healthy in jeopardy.

How are your apartment neighbors adding to your child's risk?

Researchers analyzed data from the 2001–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to see if where kids lived affected their exposure to second hand smoke.  Housing types included detached houses - including mobile homes, attached houses, and apartments. Children were between the ages of 6 and 18 years. 

The results - children living in apartments had an increase in cotinine of 45 percent over those living in detached houses.  

Of the overall 5000 children studied, 73 percent were exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke. 

Scientists say multi-unit housing may be a significant source of secondhand tobacco-smoke exposure for children due to smoke seeping through walls, halls, stairways, or shared ventilation systems. 

Smoking bans in multi-unit housing may reduce children's exposure to tobacco smoke. 

Secondhand smoke kills, even at low levels of exposure. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services says cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds, many are toxic and more than 70 are known to cause cancer. Nearly one-third of all cancer deaths every year are directly linked to smoking. Smoking causes about 85% of lung cancers.

Adolescents’ bodies are even more sensitive to nicotine, and teens are more easily addicted than adults, says Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. This helps explain why 1,000 teens a day start smoking nationally.

 

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates in Rhode Island alone there are 23,000 kids alive now who will eventually die prematurely because of cigarettes.

Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined, according to the CTFK.

 

The study was a joint effort by the Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence, American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, Illinois;
Public Health Advocacy Institute, Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts; and Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.