Taking off a smoking jacket is a minimal step in isolating a baby from
by-products of second hand smoke.  It is in the mother’s

hair and is coming through her skin and with her every breath.  At our
mastectomy shop we throw out any donated breast prosthesis from a
smoker.  You cannot get the odor out of the form, even if soaked in
ammonia for days.  Why would a baby be put skin to skin to sleep with a
mother who oozes tobacco smoke smell?  The word smoke means just that.
The mothers lungs are smoked just like you would low temperature smoke
meat or fish for preservation.  When I was a flight attendant 30 years
ago when people smoked on all airplanes, it was in the fabric of the
chairs, on the inside plastic panels of the fuselage, everywhere.  It is
so pervasive on walls

of a home that it has to be sealed in order to be painted over.  For ten
years we cleaned the gloss painted ceiling of a bathroom in our home
that had belonged to smokers previously.  Before we sold the house, we
had to seal and repaint.  Otherwise smoke 

residue bleeds out for years to come.

Judy Ritchie

 

  

2000 study found through search on www.ash.org <http://www.ash.org/>  

 

"It is the baby's total exposure to cigarette smoke which matters, not
just whether the parents smoke," he said. "Babies need to be in a
smoke-free environment." Prof Fleming, of Bristol University, said
babies whose parents smoked but who were not exposed to tobacco smoke
were twice as much at risk as those born to non-smokers. The risk was
four times higher for babies exposed to smoking for four hours a day and
eight times higher for those babies who spent eight hours a day in a
smoky atmosphere, he said. Prof Fleming said: "The risk goes up 100 per
cent for every hour a day the baby spends in a smoky atmosphere. That is
startling. Government advice five years ago that babies should be put to
sleep on their backs, rather than on their fronts or sides, halved the
cot death rate to about 500 deaths a year. Prof Fleming estimates a
further 300 lives a year would be saved if babies were kept clear of
cigarette smoke. His findings prompted the Government to issue a new
leaflet yesterday re-stating existing advice but emphasising the
importance to new-born babies of a smoke-free home. A spokesman for
British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering said adoptive parents were
already asked about their smoking habits and Professor Fleming's
recommendations would be considered by its medical committee when their
suitability was being considered.


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