Rose Marie Robertson, M.D., FAHA, American Heart Association Deputy Chief Science and Medical Officer.

Offering perspective on AHA Scientific Sessions 2020 Presentation P1917 
copyright American Heart Association 2020

"It's very important for parents to hear this because, you know, first of course cessation smoking is important for their own health. But clearly this makes the point that it's very important for their kids' health as well. And some of these things are subtle. So even kids, you know, we wrote an AHA scientific statement on this three or four years ago, looking at other evidence from other studies. And it's clear that some kids who may not get exposure to secondhand smoke in their homes can get it in cars. Cars, even with the windows down if someone is smoking are real repositories and exposure sites for secondhand smoke. And many kids will say that, "Well, my parents don't smoke at home. but they smoke in the car when they drive me to school." 

You know, it's important to realize that you wanna make all the environments that your kids are in smoke-free so that they're not exposed. We know that even having one person in the home that smokes will cause measurable levels of nicotine exposure cotinine in the urine of kids who have that exposure. So anything we can do to help our kids not be exposed to secondhand smoke. And that includes, helping them not take up vaping or use of electronic cigarettes. Because we know that that helps them transition, that exposure helps them transition to combustible cigarettes for many of them, and those e-cigarettes have adverse effects of their own."