Smoking at Home Threatens Children Despite Support for Public Bans

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While a growing majority of Americans favor smoking restrictions in public places, many adults still expose their children to significant health risks by puffing tobacco at home, a Mississippi State University researcher reports.

In a scientific paper presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in San Francisco, Robert McMillen, MD cites changes in adult attitudes and behaviors over the past six years regarding secondhand smoke.

McMillen’s report, “Changes from 2000 to 2005 in U.S. Adult Attitudes and Practices Regarding Children’s Exposure to Secondhand Smoke,” stems from his comprehensive 2000 National Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control.

"The vast majority of adults in 2005 - 97 percent-- recognized the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke from parental smoking ,” McMillen found. “Yet, a tenth of households - 10 percent - allow indoor smoking in the presence of children.”

The 2000 survey was funded by MSU’s Social Science Research Center, where McMillen is an associate research professor and leading authority on secondhand smoke; the Center for Child Health Research of the American Academy of Pediatrics; and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

A newly appointed member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the AAP’s Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence for Children in Chicago, McMillen said data in his latest report “have a number of implications for clinical and community interventions.

“While they demonstrate significant improvement in many indicators of adult attitudes and practices, homes serve as settings for intense secondhand smoke exposure, and many public settings that children frequent still are not smoke free,” he determined.

“A growing majority of adults in the U.S. favor restrictions on smoking in public settings, suggesting that many communities across the nation have the public support for much broader public smoking restriction policies,” he concluded.

McMillen and his research team conducted six annual cross-sectional household telephone surveys in the summers of 2000-2005, while numerous state and national tobacco control programs were being implemented. The surveys included national probability samples of adults from all 50 states, and had a response rate of 75-87 percent.

Support for smoking bans increased from:

• 71 to 80 percent in shopping malls;
• 61 to 71 percent in restaurants;
• 77 to 82 percent in fast-food restaurants;
• 25 to 39 percent in outdoor parks; and
• 78 to 82 percent in indoor sporting events.

Regarding household practices, support increased from 69 to 77 percent for smoke-free homes; and from 79 to 90 percent for smoking bans when children are present.

Community practices that included smoking bans increased from:

• 75 to 83 percent in indoor shopping malls;
• 68 to 80 percent in convenience stores;
• 52 to 72 percent in fast-food restaurants;
• 25 to 45 percent in restaurants; and
• 8 to 15 percent in outdoor parks.

Mississippi State’s Social Science Research Center, headed by Art Cosby, conducts basic and applied research encompassing social and economic development, families and children, alcohol safety, substance abuse, and a range of other issues.

The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting is the largest international meeting that focuses on research in child health. The PAS consists of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Ambulatory Pediatric Association, American Pediatric Society, and Society for Pediatric Research.

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