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EPA Gives Attleboro $10,000 for Secondhand Smoke Education

Release Date: 10/22/2002
Contact Information: Amy Miller, Press Office, (617) 918-1042

BOSTON – As part of national Children's Health Month, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a $10,000 grant to the city of Attleboro's Tobacco Control Office for secondhand tobacco smoke education.

Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke, is the only indoor chemical pollution that relates to the aggravation as well as development of asthma in children, according to the National Academy of Science.

The Attleboro Tobacco Control Program received the funding from EPA New England for its innovative program to protect children's health. The Tobacco Control Program, in partnership with both the Attleboro Health Department the Attleboro Fire Department, will promote Take the Smoke-Free Home Pledge.

Through this EPA grant for educational programs, the city of Attleboro will encourage parents to take a pledge to smoke outside to protect their children's health and safety. This is the first environmental tobacco smoke grant in New England and the first in the nation to combine both a health and a fire safety message to parents. An online pledge site (https://www.epa.gov/smokefree) or hotline at 1-800-513-1157 provides the public with a smoke-free home pledge kit.

"Keeping secondhand smoke out of the house is an important goal to those of us dedicated to providing clean and healthy environments," said Robert W. Varney, administrator of EPA New England. "Parents who want to protect their children from environmental pollution must take their cigarettes out of the home."

More than one in four Attleboro parents smoke in the home, according to program estimates. This smoking in the home exposes the children to a greater risk of developing asthma or inducing an asthma attack.

In addition to the health risk, cigarettes were the cause of almost 25 percent of the fire fatalities and nearly 40 percent of the victims were not the smoker, but either infants, toddlers or the elderly.