Tremendous statement made by the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine on children who live with smoke. Being exposed to the harmful effects of tobacco, they smoke the equivalent of five cigarettes a day.
We are horrified to see a baby smoking (I mean smoking directly), but most parents who smoke do so at home with the children in front, or do so on the balcony, but although minimized, the negative effect remains .
Children are more vulnerable to the effects of smoke when they are in the development phase, and basically because children breathe more frequently than adults, and introduce more air into the lungs, when compared to an older person.
Smoking in an environment where children live together involves putting their immune response and the proper functioning of the lungs at risk, as well as increasing the likelihood of having high blood pressure in the future. And we not only talk about smoking directly in front of them, but also when they are not there because the contaminants are impregnated in the clothes, in the fabrics, in the curtains, in the hair, in the car, etc.
The Spanish Society of Pediatric Pulmonology points out that tobacco has powerful irritants and substances that, in addition to cough, chronic mucus, bad smell, and itchy eyes, cause long-term effects in children such as childhood asthma, shortness of breath, wheezing, and other respiratory problems.
Of course, affirm that Children living with smoke smoke the equivalent of five cigarettes a day It is relative, as it will depend on the amount the parents smoke, but it refers to an average. In any case, even if it is one, a half or a quarter of a cigarette, children do not have to be exposed to the bad habits of adults. In addition, I consider that the family environment should be the first space for the protection of children.
