Experts at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have established that children and adolescents living in non-smoking homes in counties with laws promoting smoke-free public places have considerably lower levels of a ordinary biomarker of secondhand smoke contact than those living in counties with no smoke-free laws. The children living in non-smoking homes in U.S. counties with smoke-free laws had 39% lower occurrence of cotinine in their blood, an indicator of tobacco smoke contact, compared to those living in counties with no smoke-free laws. Children living in homes with smokers exhibited little or no advantage from the smoke-free laws.

Melanie Dove, who received her doctorate in environmental health at HSPH in 2010 and led the study pointed out that the findings put forward that smoke-free laws are a valuable plan to protect both children and adults from exposure to secondhand smoke. Besides, interventions designed to decrease or put off adults from smoking around children are needed.

Over the past decade the number of state and local smoke-free laws in the nation has developed appreciably. For instance, the number of smoke-free laws in workplaces, restaurants and bars in the U.S. has amplified from 0 in 1988 to 175 in 2006.

According to the 2006 Surgeon General’s Report, there is no secure level of experience to secondhand smoke. Children are chiefly susceptible to the toxic compounds in secondhand smoke for the reason that they have higher breathing rates and their lungs are still on the increase. Contact to secondhand smoke in children can irritate the lungs, consequential in coughing or wheezing, and can trigger an asthma attack in children with asthma. Secondhand smoke also has been related to sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory illnesses and middle ear illness.

For children, the home is the main resource of secondhand smoke exposure and most of the smoking is done by the parents. Potential exposure sources for children outside the home include cars, private child care centers, restaurants, shopping malls and parks.

Just about 20 percent of the youth in the HSPH study lived with a smoker in the home.

Experts say that a way to decrease or avert adults from smoking around children is for physicians to advice parents to stop smoking.