I remember riding in a gray Chevy Blazer on my way home from school one afternoon in the fourth grade. A neighbor who worked at the school usually took me home from Pipe Creek Elementary, and this day her husband picked us up. I sat in the back seat, careful not to touch the metal part of the seatbelt that was scalding hot from being in the sun, and I began to hold my breath as I saw her husband light up a cigarette. Smoking fascinated me. I imagined smokers breathing in the flames from their lighter as they lit their cigarettes and the brown tip turned red hot. Then they would exhale a blue haze of smoke, reminiscent of an angry dragon trying to keep his cool. I knew smoking was bad, as this was around the time that all of the information about secondhand smoke was surfacing, and I also hated the smell. Luckily, the drive was all of five minutes. I wouldn’t have to hold my breath for long.
Now that I’m older, I can’t help but wonder if his addiction was really so bad that he couldn’t go five minutes without a cigarette while he was in a car with a child. I went to the grocery store yesterday to pick up some veggies for dinner, and I saw a woman and her grandchild walking into the store ahead of me. The little girl looked to be about three or four years old. The all-too-familiar smell of cigarette smoke filled my nostrils so I looked to a cigarette in the grandmother’s hand. At this point, we were right in front of the doors.
This upsets me. With all that we know about secondhand smoke, why must people continue smoking around children? If I don’t like to be around it, I can leave, but your kids or grandchildren don’t typically have that option. If you are so addicted that you can’t walk from your car to the front of the store without smoking in front of your kids, I think you need to re-evaluate some things.
According to the EPA, secondhand smoke is the cause of between 7,500 and 15,000 respiratory tract infections in children each year, and between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections for children under 18 months of age (source: EPA). Moreover, a 2006 report from the U.S. Surgeon General noted that secondhand smoke causes children who already have asthma to experience more frequent and severe attacks, and that Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk for ear infections and are more likely to need an operation to insert ear tubes for drainage (source: CDC). Finally, secondhand smoke has been linked to a greater likelihood that your child may die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). With the abundance of information out there regarding why you shouldn’t smoke, and especially shouldn’t smoke in front of your children, it’s clear that this is a problem. Yet, I continue seeing it happening, so it must be a problem that is not going away.
As a society, we have to continue sending the message that smoking in front of your children is unacceptable. If you are somewhere that children might be, don’t smoke. Don’t allow smoking in your home. If you’re a business owner, don’t allow smoking in your business. I remember my parents have a sign on the front door of their store that says they have “country air” inside, so no smoking is allowed.
The biggest thing you can do is stop going to places where smoking is allowed. If there’s a restaurant that you’re craving, get it takeout. When owners see their restaurants half-empty, they’ll get the message. When they see that they’re not selling appetizers or desserts or alcohol because people aren’t dining in, they’ll get the message.
Stand up for your kids. Even if they could stand up for themselves, they’re kind of short, so they need our help.
More later…
-G
