Environmental Protection Agency Asking All Parents to Take the Smoke-Free Home Pledge Initiative

Newstream ^ | November 2, 2001 | Kristy Miller, EPA

[Max McGarrity]

National Campaign Designed to Protect Children from Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke

November 2001 (Newstream) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a national Smoke-Free Home Pledge Initiative that asks parents to make their homes smoke-free to protect their children from the serious health effects of secondhand tobacco smoke. In order to maintain a smoke-free home, parents must ensure that friends, relatives, and babysitters also do not smoke inside the family home, according to EPA.

EPA Administrator Gov. Christie Todd Whitman launched the new campaign at the Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, on October 16. EPA's Smoke-Free Home Pledge Initiative focuses on encouraging parents to "go out for their kids", until they can quit smoking. Governor Whitman urged parents to call EPA's toll-free hotline to make the Smoke-Free Home Pledge.

Nine to 12 million children are exposed to secondhand smoke at home every day in the United States. According to EPA and several other national studies, health effects include bronchitis and pneumonia, wheezing and coughing spells, ear infections, low birth weight, SIDS, and asthma. In fact, secondhand smoke causes approximately one million children a year to suffer from more frequent and severe asthma attacks. Asthma is the leading chronic illness in children and accounts for ten million missed school days each year.

Parents can make the commitment by calling the Smoke-Free Home Pledge Hotline at 800-513-1157. In return, EPA will send a Smoke-Free Home Kit that includes a pledge certificate and educational materials.

EPA is conducting this campaign with a range of national partner organizations. For example, community, health, and local government groups have started distributing 200,000 pledge brochures across the country. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology is strongly encouraging its 6,000 member physicians to educate their patients on the health effects of secondhand smoke. The National Association of Counties is launching a County to County Pledge Challenge, an effort that will culminate in national recognition for those that produce the most pledges.  

[culpeper]

Yes...I guess you can say the same thing about drinking. I've seen people who drank heavily on a daily basis that were wrecked by the age of 50 and I've seen others that lived to 90 and were in quite good shape along the way. But the one thing about smoking is when you have a person ,and you know the type I'm talking about, that is coughing up all sorts of stuff out of their respiratory system and coughing uncontrollably and this goes on for years and the person continues smoking. I feel bad for people like that. Thats just slow death, alot of people don't understand how powerfully addictive nicotine is.

[Cassanova Frankenstein]

Perhaps I'm a little soft in the head, (must be all those cigars) but could someone show me where in the Constitution does it say we need the EPA?

Wasn't the EPA courtesy of the Nixon Admin?