The impact of smoking in the home on the health outcomes of non-smoker occupants in the UK

Abstract

Smoking in the home remains a key source of exposure to secondhand smoke for non-smokers, particularly since the UK public smoking ban in 2007. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify all UK evidence on the impact of secondhand smoke exposure in the home on health and behavioural outcomes in non-smoker occupants. MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify all relevant UK empirical studies from 2000 to June 2011. A qualitative overview of the evidence is presented. Exposure to secondhand smoke in UK homes was found to be associated with serious negative health effects in non-smokers, including significantly increased risk of meningococcal carriage (p < 0.001) and disease (p = 0.05) in children and adolescents, cognitive impairment (p < 0.001) in adults, a higher rate of medically attended accidents in children with smoking mothers (p < 0.01), and for non-smoking women, a significant decrease in infant birth weight (p = 0.007). Living in a smoking household significantly increased the risk of future regular smoking in children (p < 0.001). In conclusion, this systematic review has identified strong evidence of an association between secondhand smoke exposure in the home and several serious health conditions. This finding highlights the importance of educating current smokers on the consequences of non-smoker exposure to smoking in the home.

The independent role of prenatal and postnatal exposure to active and passive smoking on the development of early wheeze in children

“…These findings further stress the importance of protecting pregnant women and infants from passive smoke exposure, in both public and private areas. [22] Exposure to passive smoking in public places has been substantially regulated over the past decade with significant health gains for children [23,24]. While increased population awareness and the adoption of smoke free environments have been found to reduce exposure inside the house [25], further action is needed to reduce exposure in other private areas that have been identified to contribute significantly to overall passive smoke exposure during the gestational period, such as exposure within the family car [26].…”

“…The independent role of prenatal and postnatal exposure to active and passive smoking on the development of early wheeze in children Vardavas CI (1,2) , Hohmann C (3,4) , Patelarou E (1,5) , Martinez D (6,7,8) , Henderson AJ (9) , Granell R (9) , Sunyer J (6,7,8,10) , Torrent M (6,11) , Fantini MP (12) , Gori D (12) , AnnesiMaesano I (13,14) , Slama R (15) , Duijts L (16) , de Jongste JC (17) , Aurrekoetxea JJ (18,19,20) , Basterrechea M (7,19,20) , Morales E (6,7,21) , Ballester F (7,22) , Murcia M (7,22) , Thijs C (23) , Mommers M (23) , Kuehni CE (24) , Gaillard EA (25) , Tischer C (26) , Heinrich J (26,27,) , Pizzi C…”

Factors associated with high prevalence of coughs, colds and fever among urban slum dwellers in Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…33,34 The respondent's own smoking at home can have negative impact on their own respiratory health as well as on the health of other family members through secondhand or even thirdhand smoke. 34,35 Moreover, smoking inside the home was shown to be associated with asthma and respiratory symptoms in several studies assessed in the systematic review by Kusel et al 35 A guarantee of basic housing conditions for urban slums dwellers as a part of urban planning must be a priority in such countries like Bangladesh, parallel to the improvement of access to affordable health care. Providing urban slum dwellers with necessary treatment but not critically improving their common living conditions would not prevent or solve the problem.…”

The Secondhand Smoke Exposure Scale (SHSES): A hair nicotine validated tool for assessing exposure to secondhand smoke among elderly adults in primary care

“…Furthermore, they are reported to be a "complementary" method rather than alternative ones, due to the fact that they can only be used to diminish another method's limitations 24 . On the other hand, some biomarkers may have emerged as easy and inexpensive methods for longterm measurement of exposure 6 , but are still subject to certain limitations, including lower participation rates, insufficient sensitivity to detect very low exposures, and not taking into account behavior changes by smokers influenced by active monitoring 9 The main strength of this scale is that it constitutes a biomarker-validated approach, which may potentially allow the use of SHSES for studying exposure-disease associations. However this study is not without limitations.…”