Take smoking completely out of children’s lives

One of the country's leading experts in tobacco control studies says it is time to take smoking completely out of children's lives. Professor John Britton and his team of experts at the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies (UKCTCS), based at The University of Nottingham, are calling for the promotion of smoke-free homes with the help of behavioural interventions for parents who smoke, legislation to prohibit smoking in all vehicles and new approaches to the problem such as short-term nicotine substitution. The UKCTCS has taken a leading role in a new report for the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), funded by Cancer Research UK, which says passive smoking can lead to a host of chronic diseases in children - all of which are entirely avoidable. John Britton, Professor of Epidemiology at The University of Nottingham and Director of the (UKCTCS), based at The University of Nottingham is also Chair of the RCP Tobacco Advisory Group. He said: "This report isn't just about protecting children from passive smoking, it's about taking smoking completely out of children's lives." - Using evidence-based research and analysis Professor Britton and his team found that children subjected to passive smoking face an increased risk of lower respiratory tract infection, asthma, middle ear disease and bacterial meningitis. Their results highlight the risk of maternal smoking and showed that living in a household in which one or more people smoke more than doubles the risk of sudden infant death.