Prohibiting smoking in the home is really the only way to prevent babies from being exposed to tobacco smoke, according to new research. Banning smoking in the home leads to a small but meaningful fall in infant exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, whereas less strict measures have no effect.
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Despite some limitations, these results suggest that banning smoking at home significantly reduces infant exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Less strict measures, such as opening windows when smoking and using fans, are likely to have little effect on the exposure of infants. However, it is unclear if the fall in cotinine levels actually leads to any health benefits for the infants, including a lower risk of death. The new findings suggest that anything short of a total smoking ban is unlikely to help infants but this needs to be verified in a larger study with more subjects.
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