Smoke-free homes

[MotherBear]

About 90pc of homes with kids are smokefree - survey
21 November 2006

About nine out of 10 homes with children in them are smokefree, figures released today show.

The Health Sponsorship Council said survey results from 2006 indicated that 91 per cent of parents and caregivers reported no exposure to second-hand smoke in the home within the previous week.

The council said this was a significant increase from 79 per cent in 2003. In 2004, the council launched its Smokefree Homes campaign.

Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor said the 2006 results indicated parents were responding positively to the Government's second-hand smoke messages and were making efforts to protect children from exposure.

"Children are particularly vulnerable to the harms caused by second-hand smoke and they often cannot readily move away from other people's smoke, so steps like making your home smokefree are vitally important for the health of our children," he said.

The survey also showed that 87 per cent of parents and caregivers had completely banned smoking in their homes, up from 81 per cent in 2003.

Mr O'Connor said the results boded well for the second part of the second-hand smoke campaign - Smokefree Cars - which was recently launched.

- NZPA

[MotherBear]

Kiwis 'embrace' smokefree living
1.00pm Saturday December 9, 2006

New Zealanders are embracing a smokefree lifestyle, with nine out of ten supporting the right to live and work in a smokefree environment, a Ministry of Health report says.

The report - After the Smoke Has Cleared: Evaluation of the Impact of a New Smokefree Law - was carried out by the University of Otago, University of Auckland and the Health Sponsorship Council, to evaluate the effects of the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act 2003.

Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor said since the introduction of the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act there had been a "huge change for the better" and a major buy-in from stakeholders and communities over the past two years.

"There is very strong support - more than 90 per cent - for the right to live and work in a smokefree environment and that continues to grow. In the same vein, more than 90 per cent of kiwis now report that they live in smokefree homes."

The study also showed support for a smoking ban in bars had increased - doubling to 74 per cent support in 2006 from 38 per cent in 2001, Mr O'Connor said.

"Self-reported second-hand smoke exposure in all homes has also fallen since 2004. Health Sponsorship Council surveys show self-reported second-hand smoke exposure in all homes fell from 20 per cent in 2003 to 9 per cent in 2006. Reductions were greater in Maori households."

There were also big improvements in the proportion of smokefree homes, even when a smoker lived there, he said.

In 2003, 59 per cent of Maori households with one or more smokers and one or more children were smokefree, increasing to 74 per cent in 2006. This compares to 65 per cent of similar non-Maori households in 2003 to 68 per cent in 2006.

"It's very refreshing to see that 96.5 per cent of kiwis believe its no longer okay to smoke around children."

Other findings in the research include:

* Evidence suggests the economic effects of smokefree legislation were broadly neutral or slightly positive on the hospitality industry and other sectors.

* Observed compliance in pubs and bars was close to 100 per cent. Most complaints concerned smoking on licensed premises. The number of complaints fell rapidly after the first month, with less than 20 per month since October 2005. Most complaints were resolved through letters, telephone calls and visits by enforcement staff.

* Prior to the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act 2003, at least 20 per cent of the adult workforce was exposed to second-hand smoke in the workplace. A study of 30 pubs and bars by ESR for this evaluation found that exposure to second-hand smoke reduced by 90 per cent after the law change.

* Social smokers are reporting smoking less when going out to bars and nightclubs than they did before the law change in 2004.

- NZPA

That is great news!

My nana died from lung cancer which returned after remission due to the fact that even though she'd stopped smoking for 10 years, the family living at home hadn't.

I've seen what damage it can do first hand, it's just a shame my eldest son didn't as he has started smoking since arriving in NZ!! There's no telling him even though he was brought up in a smoke free house, had relatives who were smoke free and has moved to a country where you have to go outside and smoke! >:(

Youngsters eh? Just hope he sees sense before too much dammage is done! [smiley=009.gif]

Fisheress

My nana died from lung cancer which returned after remission due to the fact that even though she'd stopped smoking for 10 years, the family living at home hadn't.

That's very sad, Fisheress. ?Such a pity that our young people can't think beyond relatives dying and consider the actual reasons for their demise. ?Hope your son will come to see the error of his ways before too long. ?Perhaps that wife he's 'having to go back to the UK to find' will set him right. ?Nothing like a bit of feminine persuasion. ? ;)

My father died of a heart attack aged 47 and the general thoughts were that it was brought on by his smoking. ?I can?t say one way or another because his father also died from a heart attack at 66. ?My mother, however, suffered from COAD (Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease) which was put down to her smoking. Quote from a website about the disease "It is a condition virtually confined to smokers and is related to the amount smoked. The risk of death is twenty times greater among people smoking 30 a day than among non-smokers.? ?

She deteriorated to the extent where she was on oxygen for 16 hours a day, so from early evening until the following morning she was hooked up to a cylinder. ?During the daytime she was still able to go out and about although very breathless at times. ?Sometimes she would get up to the toilet in the night and forget to put her mask back on when she returned to bed. ?

Over time this had the effect of damaging her brain cells due to lack of oxygen and her memory and behaviour altered detrimentally. ?She was more or less permanently on oxygen then, which severely altered her lifestyle as she was practically housebound unless she could take her cylinder with her. ?Her final months were quite traumatic, as she ended up in a mental hospital because she?d exhausted her welcome in the various hospitals and the nursing home she stayed in due to ?unsociable? behaviour. ?I?m sure if she?d been in her right mind and realised what had gone on, she would have been mortified. ?Fortunately she wasn?t in any state to know that she?d been committed, as she would have gone berserk. ?She just remarked that the people around her in the hospital were ?a load of nutters?. This was a woman who?d had a mind as sharp as a knife and this is how her life ended. ?If she could have seen into the future, I wonder if she would still have smoked. ?Knowing her, I very much doubt it. ?Once she knew she had a problem with her lungs she stopped smoking immediately, but it was already too late.

It seems fine for young people to smoke. ?They think it looks ?cool? and grown up, helps them bond with their peers who also smoke and, with girls, they think it helps keep their weight down. ?But what a price they pay, even if it?s just having clothes/hair/breath and a home or car that stinks of stale tobacco. By then it?s already encroaching on their lives. ?From there on comes the hacking cough in the mornings and it takes longer to recover from a chest infection or bronchitis. Then there?s a bit of breathlessness upon exertion, which tends to sap energy. ?I believe young people see disability and death from smoking to be an old person?s problem, but it doesn?t suddenly happen when that person becomes a certain age. ?The damage starts to take effect early on and just continues to mount up. ?To stop smoking in time can reverse some of that damage, but there comes a time when it just may be too late. ? And the trouble is, you never know it?s going to be too late until it already is.
? ?
So who?s cool now then? ?

This guy will never be out of work, anyway, same as the tobacco companies.


*Drags soapbox back into its cupboard*. ?

It needs to be said Mother Bear!

I know it won't put youngsters off now, reading your story.However, they may think back on it as they grow out of the 'gotta be cool stage'.

We've all been there ( well I definitely have), so I'm hoping my son will see sense before it really is too late!

Science and family tragedies certainly can't compete with peer pressure!

Fisheress