Reducing exposure to cigarette smoke helps keep kids healthy

Local health departments reach out to parents with educational campaign

You may not be ready to quit smoking — but you can take steps to keep secondhand smoke away from your children. That’s the simple message that local health departments want to get across to parents in the Greater Kansas City area.

In April, the Metropolitan Official Health Agencies of the Kansas City Area (MOHAKCA) will launch the second phase of a campaign to help protect young children from secondhand smoke by encouraging parents to keep smoke away from their kids.

Many studies have shown a significant connection between exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke and an increased risk of ear infections, asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia in young children. Exposure to secondhand smoke is also significantly higher in households at or below the poverty level and in households with a lower educational level, so MOHAKCA has targeted its message to parents and children participating in government assistance programs, such as Vaccine for Children in Immunization clinics; Head Start; Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition programs; and other programs that serve the underinsured and uninsured.

The first phase of the campaign in 2008–09 included several components to reinforce the message of keeping smoke away from children: a point-of-service effort that provided information and materials to target populations through service providers; a broad marketing campaign (radio, television, newspapers); and a Web site, www.smokefreefamilykc.org.

 Phase II will continue to embed the secondhand smoke message into as many health and social systems as possible to reduce negative effects on health.  “We’re also reaching out to build a stronger regional coalition with assistance from other smoke-free groups,” said Joyce Morrison, present of Media Events, who is consulting on the campaign. “We are working together to encourage actions to reduce secondhand smoke exposure by young children.”

The campaign is funded by a Healthy Lifestyles grant from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.