The director of the Iowa Department of Public Health says the new Surgeon General’s report on second-hand smoke shows children whose parents smoke are at greater risk for a number of health problems.
State Public Health director Mary Mincer-Hansen says children exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk for Sudden-Infant-Death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear infections and ever-increasing asthma.
“Smoking by parents causes respiratory problems in children…It impedes lung growth children,” Mincer-Hansen says. The Surgeon General concluded that having a separate smoking area in your home or using an air-cleansing machine does not eliminate the risk that kids will be harmed by second-hand smoke. “The U.S. Surgeon General’s report…is the most comprehensive scientific report ever produced on the health harms of second-hand smoke,” Mincer-Hanson says.