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EPA ADMINISTRATOR CHRISTIE WHITMAN UNVEILS CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM SECONDHAND SMOKE

Release Date: 10/16/2001
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Also Available in Spanish: "LA ADMINISTRADORA DE LA AGENCIA DE PROTECCIÓN AMBIENTAL CHRISTIE WHITMAN REVELA UNA CAMPAÑA PARA PROTEGER A NIÑOS DE HUMO DE
SEGUNDA MANO"


Environmental News

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman today unveiled a new environmental health campaign, the Smoke-Free Home Pledge Initiative, designed to protect millions of America’s children from the risks of secondhand smoke in their own homes. Every day, 12 million children are exposed to secondhand smoke in their home. This leads to serious health consequences, ranging from ear infections and pneumonia to asthma. Whitman announced a national television and print media campaign and a major outreach effort co-sponsored by key medical, consumer, and community organizations, and released a new brochure and other outreach materials to help families protect their children. The goal of the program is to motivate millions of parents to pledge to keep their home smoke-free.
“Because children have unique vulnerabilities - they absorb greater concentrations of smoke than adults do from the same exposure - we must use greater caution in protecting them from environmental threats to their health,” said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. “One of the ways parents and caregivers can do this is by taking the Smoke-Free Home Pledge - simply choosing not to smoke, and not letting others smoke, in your home or anywhere children are present. Of course, we encourage people to quit smoking entirely. We realize that is difficult, so until they can take that step, we ask that they smoke outside.”

Throughout the month of October, Whitman has been focusing on environmental risks to children’s health. Secondhand smoke is an environmental trigger of asthma, the cause of an estimated ten million missed school days for children in the U.S. It is estimated that up to 1 million children have aggravated asthma symptoms due to secondhand smoke.

The pledge campaign is a collaborative effort that has thousands of partners at the local level, each with their own specific activities to get the word out. The pledge brochure will be distributed by hundreds of local public health and tobacco control groups. More than 300,000 of these brochures have been sent for distribution to such groups. Doctors, who are members of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, (AAAAI) will be asking parents to make their homes smoke-free and will provide them with EPA’s new pledge brochure. The AAAAI is sending pledge materials to all of its 6,000 members (physicians and pediatricians).

EPA has established a smoke-free hotline, 1-800-513-1157, to take pledges from parents and reinforce their commitment with a certificate and supporting materials. A Secondhand Smoke and Children's Health Community Action Kit, which is a binder filled with everything a local public health group would need to set up a local pledge program, is also part of the initiative. Fifteen hundred of the binders have already been given to local programs.

The media is also helping to support the initiative through public service announcements (PSAs) that educate the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke and give the pledge hotline. The PSAs, entitled “The Promise,” are available for televison, magazines and bus shelters.

At the event, Whitman will be joined by some of the nation’s key medical, consumer, and community organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), Consumer Federation of America (CFA), and the National Organization of Black County Officials (NOBCO)/National Association of Counties (NACo).

Many other groups have already joined the smoke-free home effort, including the American Lung Association, National Council of La Raza, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Allergy & Asthma Network - Mothers of Asthmatics, American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control - Office of Smoking and Health, National Cancer Institute, and Health and Human Services Bureau of Primary Health Care.

EPA is providing participating organizations with a Community Action Kit that gives all the details about how to set up a local pledge effort. Organizations interested in joining this national effort to protect our children’s health should contact the EPA. To get more information call EPA’s IAQ INFO hotline 1-800-438-4318, or visit: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/ets.

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