‘Don’t let outdoor smokers touch your children’ | Columns & Opinion

Asthma

“My oldest son is 21 and he has had asthma since he was born. Those were different times then. I remember having a hard time asking people not to smoke inside, even if our child wasn’t there at the time. “We never notice him in our house,” my smoking father said over and over. ‘No Dad, that’s because he’s stiff from the medicines’, I would respond. But I also sensed that in the eyes of others it probably wasn’t too bad.

Holy

Our son’s pediatrician didn’t beat around the bush. ‘Smoking too much in front of him reduces his life expectancy by five years. And don’t let it be lifted by people who have just been smoking outside. Even then he ingests harmful substances.’ I was just 23 myself and just didn’t dare ask smokers to keep off him if they had just put out a butt. Smoking is sacred to smokers. And if you are anti, you are above all a huge asshole. A poser.

Pariah

I hate smoking all my life. I find the image of an adolescent with a cigarette butt in his or her hands intensely sad. It is no longer cool, so why start with it in 2022? It costs gold, you are a pariah because it is allowed in fewer and fewer places, it stinks and you will probably die from it. But what I also think is an important factor for not doing it: you are bothering others with it.

Smoke smell

So now third-hand smoke, about which more and more is being known. Harmful particles end up on the hands of smokers, for example. In this way they are taken inside after smoking and distributed. Others ingest these particles by inhaling, touching or putting things in the mouth on which the particles have landed. I immediately think of our four-month-old baby, who had a light smoke smell on her clothes a while ago after smoking outside in the evening. I felt so bad about that.

chain smoking grandpa

I brace myself again for the comments from smokers, because they are unbelievably predictable. It will all be exaggerated again. And: ‘Yes, but exhaust fumes..’ Or ‘Yes, but alcohol…’ Or you get another anecdote about a chain-smoking grandfather who only died at the age of 83; much later than that left-wing vegan anti-smoking acquaintance led the health march with her goat wool socks.

Literally visible

PURE Smoke-free made a documentary Third-hand smoke, uncovered in which the invisible smoke is literally made visible with UV substance in two families with smoking parents. It was everywhere; on furniture, on toys and even on the faces of the children. Be very, very honest: who thinks that is desirable for a child? Researchers estimate that up to 60% of the health damage usually attributed to secondhand smoke is actually caused by third-hand smoke.

addiction

Smoking is therefore always dangerous, even if you do it outside. These new findings are yet another reminder of how vital the pursuit of a smoke-free generation is. Keeping inveterate older smokers from their hobby is impossible, I see them as lost. But there is a whole new generation that should know better. And now that I’m 44 and have learned about third-rate smoking, I’m really going to stand up for the health of my children. No one will touch my baby after smoking. You just keep your addiction with you.”

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