Prevention of Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Children 0-12 Months Old

ETS exposure is a major public health concern, and tobacco use is one of the 10 Healthy People 2010 leading health indicators. Despite the body of evidence showing the adverse effects of in-utero and postnatal exposure to tobacco smoke products (TSP) and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) to the respiratory health in children, studies continue to be needed to elucidate when TSP exposure causes the greatest damage, possible mechanisms that underlie the damage, and how harm to the respiratory system of infants and vulnerable children can be prevented. and, while some efforts to reduce prenatal and childhood ETS exposure over the past decade have been successful, there is a paucity of randomized, controlled, intervention studies in the literature targeting ETS exposure reduction among infants age 0-12 months. Moreover, the effectiveness of ETS exposure prevention interventions in reducing the occurrence or severity of health symptoms and outcomes has rarely been systematically evaluated.