State after state has passed laws to ban smoking inside restaurants and bars and a new study shows these kinds of laws are helping children.
“I’ve noticed a big difference at restaurants,” Shirley Maller said. The 34 year old mother from Montana has two kids and says before the law was passed she tried to limit the amount of secondhand smoke her kids were exposed to.
“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “Smoking was such an after thought in so many places but thankfully it’s not anymore.”
The smoking bans aren’t just clearing the air in bars and restaurants a new study shows the decrease in secondhand smoke is decreasing the number or ear infections children get.
The study, done by Harvard School of Health, appeared in Tobacco Control.
“Our study is the first to demonstrate the public health benefits to children of the increase in smoke-free homes across the nation. It also is the first study to quantify over the past 13 years a reversal in what had been a long-term increasing trend in middle ear infections among children,” said lead author Hillel Alpert, research scientist in HSPH’s Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. “If parents avoid smoking at home, they can protect their children from the disease that is the most common cause of visits to physicians and hospitals for medical care,” he said.
Ear infections are the leading cause of doctors visits, costing upwards of $3 million each year. Researchers found the average annual number of outpatient visits for ear infections in children aged 6 years and younger dropped 5%, and hospital discharges fell by 10% per year from 1993 to 2006 about the same time anti smoking laws went into effect.
Researchers encourage families to consider creating a smoke-free home environment as well.
“Smoke-free rules in homes are extremely important to protect children, given the many adverse effects that secondhand tobacco smoke exposure has on child health,” Alpert said. “It should be considered in every home.”
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