HOUSEHOLD SMOKING RESTRICTIONS AND ADOLESCENTS EXPOSURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO-SMOKE

Background. Reducing adolescents' exposure to environmental tobacco sm oke (ETS) is an important public health goal. This paper identifies th e linkage between young people's exposure at home and household smokin g restrictions, and suggests the promotion of such restrictions as a s trategy to reduce health risks. Methods. Data are from the 1993 Massac husetts Tobacco Survey, a telephone survey of 1,606 adolescents. Resul ts. Seventy-eight percent of adolescents reported exposure to ETS duri ng the preceding week. Reported hours of exposure at home were associa ted with the number of adult smokers in the household (P 0.001). Fifty -three percent of teens who lived with smokers reported no smoking res trictions for family members, 22% reported designated smoking areas, a nd 25% reported smoking bans. Among those households, smoking restrict ions for family members were associated with significant reductions in mean hours of ETS exposure reported: no restrictions were associated with 33.2 hr of exposure during the prior week, designated smoking are as--12.7 hr, and household smoking bans--2.4 hr. Restrictions on Visit or smoking were associated with significant reductions in home ETS exp osure for teens who lived with nonsmokers, but had no independent effe ct among teens who lived with smokers. Conclusions. Health risks exper ienced by adolescents living with adult smokers can be substantially r educed by household smoking restrictions. (C) 1997 Academic Press.