Exposure to smoke twice U.S. average
Jump to full article: Charleston (WV) Gazette, 2008-08-13
Author: Eric Eyre Staff writer
Intro: West Virginia's youngest and poorest children are twice as likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes as other low-income kids in the United States, according to a report released Tuesday.
More than 23 percent of West Virginia infants and toddlers enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program lived in homes where parents or caregivers smoked last year, the state's Office of Nutritional Services reported.
The national average for WIC children - ages 4 and under - was 10.6 percent.
Children exposed to tobacco smoke have higher rates of respiratory illness, ear infections and sudden infant death syndrome.
"Everybody knows secondhand smoke is bad, but they're still smoking around their kids," said Bruce Adkins, director of the state's Division of Tobacco Prevention. "People are so addicted. We have a lot of hard-core tobacco users in West Virginia, and they're tough to get at." . . .
West Virginia has the second-highest percentage of adult smokers in the nation, behind Kentucky.
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