Commentary | Protecting children from second-hand tobacco smoke in the home: the need for a new approach

Commentary

Protecting children from second-hand tobacco smoke in the home: the need for a new approach

Details

Citation

Semple S, Tigova O, Howell R, Davie E, Gorini G, Turner SW, Vardavas C, Clancy L, Peruga A, Fernández E & O'Donnell R (2025) Protecting children from second-hand tobacco smoke in the home: the need for a new approach. Tobacco Control. https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2024-059205

Abstract
First paragraph: Recent decades have seen enormous global success in tackling the harms from breathing second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS). Ireland led the way in introducing national-level smoke-free enclosed public spaces to protect non-smokers from the harms of SHS, and many countries followed suit. Today, 2.1?billion people across 74 countries benefit from comprehensive smoke-free policies in indoor public places and workplaces and on public transport. In the UK, for example, the proportion of non-smoking adults who have measurable levels of nicotine in their saliva has fallen from nearly 90% in 1998 to less than 20% in 2016. Using the same method of assessment, the proportion of children exposed to SHS has reduced by a smaller magnitude, from 86% in 1998 to 35% by 2018. This commentary makes the case that this gap demonstrates the need for a new approach to protecting children from SHS.

Journal
Tobacco Control