Pediatrics in the Community: A Smoking Ban in the Heart of Tobacco Country

1. Michael Dale Warren, MD 2. TaTanisha Bryant, MD 3. Melissa Agan, MD 1. Vanderbilt Pediatrics Resident Advocacy Group, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, Tenn 1. C. Andrew Aligne, MD, MPH, Section Editor 1. Co-Director of the Pediatric Links to the Community Program, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY Pediatricians provide care daily for children who are harmed by secondhand smoke, whether it is a child who has asthma in the pediatric intensive care unit or a toddler who has otitis media. This situation is particularly frustrating because passive smoking is an entirely preventable cause of many childhood illnesses. (1) Beginning in January 2007, the resident advocacy group at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, led by Drs Warren, Bryant, and Agan, participated in a legislative campaign to ban smoking in public places in Tennessee. The residents worked with numerous faculty members to review the scientific literature on public smoking bans and to develop a sample letter and a list of talking points based on their findings. Their points emphasized the negative consequences of secondhand smoke in terms of illness and medical costs, the positive impact of smoking bans in other localities, and the overall lack of negative economic consequences from smoking bans (Table⇓). In late February 2007, the residents incorporated the issue into their program's inaugural Advocacy Week, in which several state government officials participated. During this week, members of the resident group presented a lecture on the impact of secondhand smoke on children and began circulating their advocacy toolkit. | Children who have never smoked a cigarette die from cigarette smoke. Children who have never smoked a cigarette become very sick from cigarette smoke. It is imperative, for the health of all children, that Tennessee limit children's exposure to tobacco smoke by banning smoking in all public places. | || | Children are frequently exposed to environmental tobacco smoke | | |