What can parents do to protect themselves and their children from secondhand smoke?
Here are some steps parents can take to reduce their family’s exposure to secondhand smoke: • If a parent smokes, advise them to quit. • Make their home a smoke-free zone. Remove ashtrays from their home and place signs in the home asking people not to smoke. Remember, air flows throughout a house, so smoking in even one room allows smoke to go everywhere. • Protect their children by letting caregivers and babysitters know that they do not allow smoking in their home or around their children. • Let family, friends and people they work with know that they do care if they smoke around them. • In their cars, do not smoke or allow others to smoke. Opening windows in not enough to clear the air. • In restaurants, shopping malls, bowling alleys and other public places, sit in the non-smoking area or only go to those that are smoke-free. A listing of smoke-free places in the St. Louis metropolitan area can be found on www.breatheeasymo.org.
