In the United States, four in ten children are exposed to second-hand smoke, according to the American Heart Association. A new study from Tel Aviv University suggests that parents who smoke incorrectly rely on their own physical senses to assess the presence of tobacco smoke in the air.
"This reliance on their own physical sensory perceptions leads to misconceptions about when and where children are exposed to tobacco smoke," says Dr. Laura Rosen of the TAU School of Public Health and Public Health. the Sackler School of Medicine. study, recently published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research .
"Nobody has ever pinpointed this problem of perception of exposure," says Dr. Rosen. "This is important for the ongoing debate on restrictions on smoking in public places because people can be exposed without knowing it."
Misunderstandings and Misconceptions
The research team conducted in-depth interviews with 65 parents of young children from smoker homes in Israel. They found many false assumptions and a lack of awareness of where and when children were exposed to cigarette smoke.
"Many parents think that they take adequate measures to protect their children from the damage of cigarette smoke, but we found that they are not even aware of the exposure and therefore do not take adequate measures to protect their children, "Dr. Rosen continues.
The researchers then compared the parents' misconceptions about exposure to second-hand smoke with the scientific results of recent studies. They found that if parents believed that they did not see or did not smell smoke, their children were not exposed.
"But previous studies have shown that 85% of the smoke is invisible, and many components of cigarette smoke are odorless," says Dr. Rosen. "Plus, you can not rely on the smell of a smoker, who may have been damaged by smoking."
Others said they believed that they were smoking next to an open window, on the balcony or in a designated area - or were ventilating the room after smoking - their children would not be exposed to smoke. "But the urine tests of children whose parents smoke near open windows indicate twice the normal level of cotinine, a nicotine product," says Dr. Rosen.
Some parents also noted that they believed that smoking in the car with open windows would not harm their children. "The fact is that the level of harmful particles in a smoker's car can be even higher than in bars where customers smoke freely," says Dr. Rosen. "Research has shown that children exposed to a single cigarette in a car have increased biomarkers 24 hours after exposure.In addition, prolonged exposure to low levels can accumulate over time and cause permanent damage to the lungs and cardiovascular systems.
"To protect children from second-hand smoke, parents must be convinced that exposure occurs even when they do not see or smell the smoke themselves.
Source:
https://www.aftau.org/weblog-medicine--health?&storyid4704=2362&ncles4704=3
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