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Secondhand Smoke Endangering Children [07/30-3]

Excerpts from:  Secondhand smoke snuffs health of children

By: Maryann Gogniat Eidemiller, For the Tribune-Review, http://www.pittsburghlive.com [07/29/02]

Newborns and toddlers discharged from area hospitals in July went home with logo T-shirts that make a statement, but not about fashion.

It's about their life and breath. The T-shirts read: "Keep me a smoke-free baby."

The urgent warning was promoted this month by the Westmoreland County Tobacco-Free Youth Coalition and the American Cancer Society, with the March of Dimes providing the little garments. They want parents and other adults to be aware of health risks that youngsters face from secondhand smoke in the home and in the even more confined spaces of automobiles.

"We tell parents if they must smoke, please take it outside. That's one of our slogans," said Francis P. Murrman Sr., a coalition member who is a retired guidance counselor from the Greensburg Salem School District.

For the past six years, Murrman has been involved in many of the organization's programs aimed at discouraging students from smoking. The coalition is affiliated with the Tobacco Prevention Program of Penn State's Westmoreland County Cooperative Extension office on Donohoe Road near Greensburg.

This drive focuses on dissuading smokers from lighting up in front of children of all ages, beginning with babies.

"Now's a good time to make an impact, when the mother is absolutely, deeply and madly in love with her newborn," said registered nurse Caye Vanderscott, who manages the maternity unit at Westmoreland Regional Hospital in Greensburg.

The T-shirts and messages are useful even if the parents themselves don't smoke.

"They are a good conversation starter because some parents are uncomfortable asking people to not smoke in their homes," said Vicki Oles, the coordinator of the Tobacco Prevention Program.

There's good reason for the concern.

"We knew there was a danger in firsthand smoking, but for the longest time people didn't realize what secondhand smoke did to people," Murrman said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists tobacco as causing more deaths annually than alcohol, drunken driving, cocaine, crack, heroin, morphine, homicide, car accidents, fires and AIDS. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that secondhand smoke kills at least 3,000 Americans a year.

During three decades in education, Murrman saw many students affected by exposure to smoking.

"The school nurses tell us that they see a lot of kids who complain about headaches and sinus problems, ear infections, and so many things that are apparently caused from secondhand smoke," he said. "Children are more sensitive to these problems, and they are supposed to go home and do homework and read, and you wonder how they can do their best when the quality of their house is really poisoned."

The culprits are more than 4,000 chemicals present in cigarette smoke. Among them are the poison arsenic, hydrogen cyanide (used in gas-chamber executions), the embalming fluid of formaldehyde, ammonia, lead, mercury, and carbon monoxide.

Sidestream smoke, which curls off the end of a smoldering cigarette, is even worse. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that some of the components in sidestream smoke are up to 40 times more potent than what a smoker inhales.

According to a study done at the University of California, riding in a car with a smoker for one hour is the equivalent of smoking four cigarettes. Someone spending 24 hours in a home with a pack-a-day smoker might as well be smoking three cigarettes during that time.

And it doesn't go away.

"The toxins stay in the air at least 48 hours," Oles said. "Wherever the odor of fried chicken goes, wherever the air current takes it, it also takes the toxins. So it's not that simple to say you'll just smoke in the bedroom."

Jeanne Toohey, in charge of public relations at Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, said that most parents are receptive to the baby T-shirts. But, she added, there are some who can't quit smoking.

"The focus of our campaign is for them to just not light up in front of the children," she said.

Latrobe Area Hospital is promoting the smoke-free baby program in its prenatal classes as well as in the newborn nursery.

"It's a message that we're trying to get out, to encourage smokers to be sensitive to people of all ages, down to children," said registered nurse Kathleen Torrero, the nurse manager of the hospital's newborn nursery.

Mothers-to-be at prenatal classes learn how their smoking can affect their babies. According to the U.S. Public Health Services, it increases pregnancy complications such as the embryo becoming implanted in the fallopian tube, or having the placenta attaching too low in the uterus or separating from the uterine wall before delivery. There's also more risk for miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery before the baby's lungs are developed, chronic disabilities such as cerebral palsy, sudden infant death syndrome, and mental retardation.

UPMC St. Margaret in Aspinwall is participating at its New Kensington Family Health Center. The staff at the primary care practice has been giving out the T-shirts year-round and will continue as long as they are available.

"We're doing it because this is so great a health concern," community relations director Mary Josefoski said. "We have smoke-free restaurants and smoke-free airlines, so we certainly should have smoke-free babies."

The Women, Infants and Children program of Westmoreland County, and Jeannette District Memorial Hospital also are involved in the smoke-free baby campaign.

"Now Pennsylvania has a new toll-free line that people can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to get help to quit smoking," Oles said. "They can get personal counseling on the phone, or they can be referred to a location."

The March of Dimes is providing reimbursement to pregnant women or their partners who pay for smoking cessation classes. For information, contact 877-724-1090.

As for adults who cannot stop smoking, Oles added that by taking their habit outside, they are telling children, "I don't want to harm you, even if I am harming myself."

Smoke Exposure
Exposing children to tobacco smoke annually results in:

350,000 ear infections
86,000 ear operations (tubes)
18,000 tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy surgeries
500,000 physician visits for asthma
600,000 physician visits for coughs
152,000 cases of pneumonia
350,000 cases of bronchitis