Poor Kids Exposed to More Secondhand Smoke

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"The best thing you can do as a smoker in a household of kids is to stop smoking," said Danny McGoldrick, research director at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "We know that kids who have parents who smoke are much more likely to become smokers themselves."

"Once again, it's the most vulnerable in our society who pay the price for tobacco use," he said.

But beyond direct exposure to smoke from their living situations, young people also appear to be influenced, when deciding whether to smoke, by the movies they watch.

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Another study in the same issue of Pediatrics found that seeing movie characters smoking has an effect on teenagers.

"This is the first study to demonstrate that movie smoking exposure has a long-term impact on smoking behavior," said lead author Madeline Dalton, director of the Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth Medical School.

Dalton's research team asked 1,791 teens about their movie-watching and smoking habits, first when they were 14 or 15, and then again when they were 18.

Compared with those who watched the fewest movies with characters who smoked, teens who saw the most smoking in movies were twice as likely to become established smokers as young adults, Dalton said.

"Importantly, movie smoking exposure was a stronger predictor of who went on to become an established smoker than having friends or parents who smoke," she said.

Eliminating exposure to smoking in movies when kids are young could reduce by a third the number of young adults who become addicted smokers, Dalton said. And that could be a key factor in preventing long-term adverse health consequences related to smoking, she said.

"Children's exposure to movie smoking can be eliminated through a combination of policy changes and parental behavior," Dalton said. "Parents should be aware that what children watch at a young age influences their behavior later in life. The movie industry should act responsibly and take steps to ensure that children are not exposed to smoking in movies."

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