Sitting In Nonsmoking Section Helps Prevent Teen Smoking

Parent Behaviors Influence Teens

The simple act of requesting to sit in a nonsmoking section may have profound benefits beyond avoiding second-hand smoke, according to a report in The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Parents who routinely engage in such anti-smoking behaviors in front of their adolescent children - particularly parents who themselves smoke - appear to significantly reduce their offspring's chances of becoming a smoker by their senior year in high school, says Dr. M. Robyn Andersen of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Adolescent children of parents who smoke were 13 percent less likely to become smokers by 12th grade if their parents reported routinely asking to sit in designated smoke-free areas of public establishments compared to adolescent children whose smoking parents chose to sit in smoking sections, Dr. Andersen says.

Specifically, when parents reported that they did not usually use nonsmoking sections, about 42 percent of their adolescent children became daily smokers.

When parents usually asked to sit in nonsmoking sections, the daily smoking rate among their adolescent children was 27 percent.

"I was surprised by the size of the effects," Dr. Andersen says. "In particular, I didn't expect them to be so large in the families where there was at least one smoking parent.

"This was a happy surprise, because most smoking parents don't want their kids to smoke," says Dr. Andersen.

Looking for Ways To Reduce Teen Smoking

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and a gift from the Northern Life Insurance Company of Minneapolis, Minn., is the first of its kind to assess the impact of nonsmoking sections on smoking behavior in adolescents, Dr. Andersen said.

"Since Americans tend to go out to eat quite a bit, asking to be seated in a nonsmoking section may be a particularly effective way to communicate because it's a way to make an anti-smoking statement on a regular basis. It's a chance to bring it up,"  says Dr. Anderson.

The study also looked at parents' reports of other anti-smoking actions such as banning smoking in the home and asking others not to smoke in their presence, both of which also had a significant impact on preventing daily teen smoking.

Adolescent children of smoking parents who banned smoking in the home and asked people not to smoke in their presence were 15 percent and 8 percent less likely to smoke, respectively, compared to children of parents who did not.

A substantial percentage of parents in the smoking families reported engaging in such anti-smoking actions: 29 percent reported not allowing smoking in their homes, 35 percent reported usually sitting in nonsmoking sections, and 24 percent reported asking others not to smoke around them.

However, the best thing a parent can do to prevent their children from smoking is to refrain from smoking themselves, Dr. Andersen says.

"If you as a smoking parent don't want your kid to smoke, ideally you should quit smoking," she says. "But even if you can't, or until you do, there are things you can do, such as not allowing smoking in the house or sitting in nonsmoking sections.

"These actions help you back up your words when you tell your kids you don't want them to smoke, even if you are addicted to cigarettes," Dr. Anderson says. "It appears to be a way to communicate that this is something that you seriously care about, it's important, and it's not just something you're saying."

Prevention Leads to Non-smoking Adults

Previous research indicates that if a child reaches age 18 without becoming a smoker, his or her odds of remaining smoke-free are around 90 percent. Therefore, such simple anti-smoking interventions potentially could prevent thousands of young people in the US from becoming daily, long-term smokers, Dr. Andersen says.

Statistics also show that having a parent who smokes increases a child's chances of becoming a smoker by 12th grade by 10 percent compared to children of nonsmoking parents.

Dr. Andersen's findings are based on data collected from more than 3,500 children and parents in 20 school districts in western Washington.

Information on parental-smoking status and anti-smoking behavior was collected from the parents via survey when their children were in the 11th grade. A year later, the 12th-grade students were asked to complete a classroom survey about their current smoking behavior.

Student self-reports of smoking activity were found to be largely accurate as verified through saliva tests that checked for the presence of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine.

Fifty-one percent of the students were male and 90 percent were Caucasian. Since the study sample was almost all Caucasian, reflecting the demographics of the area, the results may not generalize to a multiethnic community.

The students in the study served as the control, or comparison, group for the Hutchinson Smoking Prevention Project, the largest and longest school-based intervention trial ever conducted in smoking-prevention research.

Overall the study involved 8,400 students and 600 teachers throughout 40 school districts in Washington. Results of this 15-year study, funded by the NCI, were published in 2000.

The study found that implementation of a school-based prevention program focused on teaching youth how to identify and resist social influences to smoke - the main thrust of smoking-prevention education and research for more than two decades - simply does not work.

Always consult your child's physician for more information.

Online Resources

(Our Organization is not responsible for the content of Internet sites.)

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

American Cancer Society

CDC Quit Smoking Consumer Guide

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

National Institute of Child Health & Human Development

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

US Food and Drug Administration

May 2004

Sitting In Nonsmoking Section Helps Prevent Teen Smoking

Looking for Ways To Reduce Teen Smoking

Prevention Leads To Non-smoking Adults

Smoking Facts

Online Resources

Smoking Facts

Diseases caused by smoking kill more than 430,000 people in the US each year.

Even with anti-smoking campaigns and medical disclaimers in place, many people continue to smoke or start smoking every year.

According to the American Cancer Society, 90 percent of new smokers are children and teenagers, in many cases, replacing the smokers who quit or died prematurely from a smoking-related disease.

Smokers not only have increased risk of lung disease, including lung cancer and emphysema, but also have increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and oral cancer.

Consider the latest statistics available from the American Lung Association:

• each day, more than 5,000 persons (younger than 18 years old) smoke their first cigarette - more than 2,000 of these will become regular smokers every day

• at least 4.5 million adolescents (ages 12 to 17 years) are current smokers

• among 12th graders, 20 percent smoke cigarettes daily

In posing health risks on the body's cardiovascular system, smoking:

• causes immediate and long-term increases in blood pressure

• causes immediate and long-term increases in heart rate

• reduces cardiac output and coronary blood flow

• reduces the amount of oxygen that reaches the body's tissues

• changes the properties of blood vessels and blood cells - allowing cholesterol and other fatty substances to build up (accumulate)

• contributes to higher blood pressure and increased risk of blot clot formation

• damages blood vessels

• doubles the risk of ischemic stroke (reduced blood flow to the brain)

In addition, smoking has been associated with depression and psychological distress.

The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates indicate that approximately 37,000 to 40,000 people die each year from heart and blood vessel disease caused by secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke is smoke that is exhaled by smokers and smoke emitted from the burning end of a lit cigarette, cigar, or pipe.

Both direct and indirect smoking exposure poses significant health hazards to pregnant women, infants, and young children.

Children and infants exposed to tobacco smoke are more likely to experience ear infections and asthma, and are at a higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than children and infants without the same exposure.

The following common symptoms may be associated with exposure to secondhand smoke:

• irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat

• coughing

• excessive phlegm (mucus in the airways)

• chest discomfort from lung irritation

• chest pain, which may indicate heart disease

The symptoms of secondhand smoke may resemble other medical conditions and problems. Always consult your adolescent's physician for a diagnosis.

Smoking, in addition to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity, and diabetes tops the list as a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

In fact, smoking has been classified as the single most preventable cause of premature death in the US.

The AHA states that eliminating smoking not only reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, but also reduces the risk of repeat heart attacks and death by heart disease by 50 percent.

Research also indicates that smoking cessation is crucial in the management of many contributors to heart attack, including atherosclerosis, thrombosis, coronary artery disease, and cardiac arrhythmias.

Always consult your child's physician for more information.