Yesterday, the Wisconsin Medical Journal (WMJ), a publication of the Wisconsin Medical Society, published a new study showing that exposure to secondhand smoke has decreased both inside and outside of homes in Wisconsin since the statewide smoke-free law went into effect in July 2010. This news was celebrated by many of our partners in Wisconsin, like the American Cancer Society, Smoke-Free Wisconsin, and the American Lung Association in Wisconsin. At WCCF, we’re also celebrating this news because of the healthy difference this law is making for children – in public places, and their homes.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke because they’re still developing physically, breath at a more rapid rate than adults, and have little control over their environment. If a parent smokes, or allows people to smoke in their home, children are at greatest risk of damaging health effects. Some of those negative health outcomes include: causing asthma (the most chronic childhood disease), triggering attacks, or making asthma symptoms more severe; increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); increased risk of lower respiratory track infections like pneumonia and bronchitis in children under six; and increased risk of middle ear infections.

This is why the findings that the smoke-free law decreased exposure to secondhand smoke outside the home from 55 percent to 32 percent, and inside the home from 13 percent to 7 percent, mean so much to child health advocates and children in Wisconsin. The cultural shift away from unhealthy behavior, like smoking, is critical for our public health and the health of future generations.

The study was done by researchers in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, using data from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin.

Sara Eskrich