Healthcare professionals are willing and able to support, in line with the Ministry of Health's desire for a Smokefree Aotearoa by 2025. This is no small target, with nicotine being the second most addictive drug in the world after methamphetamine.
World Smokefree Day, celebrated every year on May 31, is an opportunity to reflect on the place of smoking in our society, and an excellent time for smokers to reflect on their habit.
While the numbers smoking in many groups throughout society have trended downwards for some years, there are still statistics of major concern to health professionals. Pregnant women are still smoking in significant numbers, and with pregnant Maori women this is at epidemic level.
Clearly the concern is not just due to the damage they are doing to their own health, but also the health of their unborn baby.
After a child is born the silent danger of second-hand smoke kicks in. It is a topic deserving of greater exposure.
Second-hand smoke is made up of "mainstream" smoke, which the smoker breathes out, and 'sidestream' smoke, which drifts from a burning cigarette.
Breathing in second-hand smoke, often referred to as passive smoking, occurs for up to 25 minutes after a cigarette is extinguished, as the smoker continues to breathe toxins out. Toxins also leach from the smoker's skin.
Even less talked about is third-hand smoke - the toxins that land and stay on nearly every surface where someone has been smoking, including in hair, on clothes, car upholstery, furniture and flooring.
Babies and young children are defenceless against this bombardment. Their smaller airways mean they breathe faster, so they take in much more of a cigarette's harmful chemicals than an adult would in the same time, leaving their less mature immune systems exposed. Babies and children also often put their hands and toys into their mouths, meaning greater opportunity to swallow or breathe in the toxins from third-hand smoke.
It is not scaremongering. The health risks are real.
Second-hand smoke can impair a baby's breathing and heart rate, which can put a baby at a higher risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI including SIDS and fatal sleeping accidents). If parents smoke during pregnancy and after their baby is born, their baby's SIDS risk increases. The more second-hand smoke a baby is exposed to, the higher the risk of SIDS.
If children are exposed to second-hand smoke, they're more likely to develop a range of lung and other health problems, including asthma, bronchiolitis, bronchitis, childhood cancers, croup, ear infections, meningitis, pneumonia and tonsillitis.
At least 33 per cent of children who have respiratory illnesses such as bronchiolitis will have chronic lung disease as adults.
In a household where one or more adults smoke, it's known children need to go to the doctor more often, while their likelihood of taking up smoking in adolescence doubles.
As health professionals we would urge smokers to become smokefree for the betterment of their own health, and in doing so become positive non-smoking role models for their whanau.
But if you're not quite ready to become smokefree, or someone else in your home is smoking, there are still things you can do to reduce your child's exposure to smoke. Ensure no one smokes near your child at all times, in all spaces. A smokefree home and car is a good way to start, and remember the 25-minute rule.
Every child has the right to grow up in a smoke-free environment. It is essential for good health.
- If you need more advice about quitting smoking, start by talking to your GP or another health professional, or call Quitline on 0800 778 778. Website: quit.org.nz/
- Sue Ward and Kate Te Pou are Clinical Nurse Specialists in the Respiratory Service at the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.
- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz
