Intervention and policy issues related to children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke

Background. Children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is una cceptably high; almost 40% of children in the United States are regularly e xposed to ETS. Methods. This paper presents a review of the literature that evaluates inte rventions designed to reduce ETS exposure among young children. In addition , it presents the study design for Project KISS (keeping Infants Safe from Smoke), an intervention designed to utilize exposure-related feedback to in crease parents' motivation for ETS reduction and to reduce household ETS le vels. Baseline data are presented to illustrate factors that should be addr essed in ETS interventions. Results. The literature review demonstrates the dearth of studies in the li terature targeting ETS reduction among children. Participants in Project KI SS believed that smoking had affected their children's health and were in l ater stages of motivational readiness to quit smoking than is typically obs erved. However, they face a number of challenges to smoking, such as high p revalence of nicotine dependence, high prevalence of living with other smok ers, and socioeconomic and stress-related barriers. Conclusions. The policy implications of this research are discussed, and re commendations are made for future research. (C) 2001 American Health Founda tion and Academic Press.