Smoking Exposure not in Home
Published on December 4, 2009 7:56 AM
Smoking is dangerous for kids, and all parents know that however they continue to smoke in homes where their children are. That’s why the smoking ban in the UK did not lead to children being exposed to more smoking at home. One of the main criticisms of the ban in public places was that it could urge people to not drink at home where they could smoke.
Researchers found smoking exposure in children of 3,500 primary schools. They took saliva swabs from children aged 10 to 11 before the ban came in and then a year afterwards to test for exposure to second-hand smoke. The pupils also filled in questionnaires. The researchers found that there was no significant change in the children's exposure to second-hand smoke. These result provoked the government to introduce the smoking ban in homes where are parents who use to smoke. Such a ban was introduced in England, Northern Ireland and Wales in 2007 and in Scotland in 2006. But the study concluded that this had not happened in UK.
Part of the thinking behind the legislation was that it would encourage more people to quit smoking as well as increasing awareness about passive smoking. Professor Laurence Moore, lead researcher explained: "We could have hoped for a fall, and I think what policy-makers now need to do is look at ways of preventing people from taking up smoking in the first place as a way of reducing smoking levels."
Statistics show that in UK was little change in smoking rates for the past 15 years with, between a fifth and quarter of adults which continue to smoke. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health agreed too. She added that the government wanted to see less parents smoking at home. "Exposure to second-hand smoke is harmful, especially to young people. For this reason, we encourage all smokers to make their homes and cars smoke-free, especially if children are present," she explained. But not all scientists and even the government members are sure that this legislation will work.
