Answers About Tobacco

Website Targets Business Owners

pichie — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:28:29 +0000

Tobacco Free Nebraska has launched a new Website targeting business owners who employ tobacco users.

The TobaccoHurtsBusiness.ne.gov Website provides information on employee tobacco use and how it can affect business, as well as the steps that can be taken to minimize the impact.

Please help us spread the word about the site, by:

Downloading one of the two images below (simply right-click on the image and save it to your computer),
Adding the image to your organization’s Website (or sharing it via social media), and
Linking the image to http://TobaccoHurtsBusiness.ne.gov.

It’s that simple!

Tobacco Free Campuses

pichie — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:25:22 +0000

ALBANY — New York has 67 smoke-free or tobacco-free college campuses, more than any other state in the country, and 29 more colleges in the state are working to adopt such policies, the American Cancer Society announced in a recent report.

Forty-seven percent of New York colleges enforce bans on smoking or tobacco products altogether or plan to soon implement campus-wide bans, the report said. There has been a thirty-fold increase in the number of New York campuses implementing smoke-free policies since 2005.

New York City’s public colleges have already gone tobacco-free, and the 64-campus State University of New York is seeking to ban smoking but needs legislative approval.

“New York has always been at the cutting edge on a lot of these issues,” said Blair Horner, vice president for advocacy for the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey. “The importance to us is to make sure that the people that go to college in New York state are not exposed to a known human carcinogen.”

As of January, 608 campuses nationwide had banned tobacco, and another 217 had banned smoking, the report said. Three states have passed laws mandating campuses be smoke-free, including Iowa, whose law also applies to private colleges, the report said.

Though some SUNY campuses have already banned smoking, the system would need a state law to implement such a sweeping change.

The SUNY board of trustees urged the Legislature in a June 2012 resolution to pass a law mandating that campuses adopt smoke-free policies by January 2014. But the bill has not yet been introduced, SUNY spokesman David Doyle said.

“We are in the process of trying to identify support of the legislation to get the law passed,” Doyle said. “We’re optimistic that we can get something done this legislative session.”

The session extends through June 20.

SUNY Cortland was among the first state campuses to ban smoking. The school announced in 2011 it would go tobacco-free, and after various public education efforts, the policy took effect in January.

The American Cancer Society gave Cortland an “A” grade for its policy in the report. The school is one of 48 in New York that are 100 percent tobacco-free, banning chewing tobacco and electronic cigarettes as well as traditional cigarettes.

“The students we attract tend to be very active, health-conscious students,” said Frederic Pierce, vice president of public relations at Cortland.

Cortland has a large physical education program and has well-respected athletic teams, he explained.

“When you look at that, and you look at all the evidence there is about the harm that tobacco can do, it didn’t make sense any more for us to not take a leadership role in banning it from campus,” he said.

Roberts Wesleyan College in Chili also earned an “A” for its tobacco-free status, a practice that’s based in the school’s Christian roots, said Ruth Logan, vice president for administration.

Logan said the campus has always instituted a ban on alcohol, drugs and tobacco, in an effort to inspire students to lead a “wholesome” lifestyle.

“It’s not like it’s a new concept for us,” Logan said. “It’s just that the rest of the world has kind of caught up to our practice.”

Some other local colleges are also working on their policies.

• Monroe Community College, following a June 2012 resolution by the SUNY board of trustees calling for 100 percent tobacco-free environments on its campuses by January 2014, has started to draft a policy and implementation plan.

MCC’s Tobacco-Free Committee hopes to present a policy to the school’s board of trustees in June, said Janet Ekis, a spokeswoman for the school.

• The College at Brockport adopted a policy in 2011 that prohibits smoking on all college-managed property, with the exception of two parking lots.

• Nazareth College forbids smoking in its buildings as well as in main walkways on campus and within 20 feet of any entrance or air intake location.

• The University of Rochester prohibits smoking within 30 feet of university-owned buildings, while smoking is not permitted in the footprint of the Medical Center except for three “smoking outposts,” far away from any of the buildings.

• At the Rochester Institute of Technology, smoking is prohibited in any indoor area. Smoking is also prohibited in all RIT housing and within 25 feet of any residential facility.

A New York City-based smokers’ rights group that is currently suing state parks for banning smoking in certain areas argues that campuses are abusing their power by disallowing tobacco use, a legal activity.

Audrey Silk, founder of NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, said campus administrators argue they’re protecting non-smokers from second-hand smoke. But she claimed the leaders are actually trying to force students who smoke to quit.

“These are adults. At 18, these young adults should be able to make their own decisions,” Silk said. “They’re using force of law to indoctrinate (students) into their way of thinking.”

Horner said tobacco companies target young people, and while most people who smoke began using tobacco before age 18, the remainder start smoking before they turn 26.

“That’s really the college demographic,” he said. “So what we’re hoping to do is drive down smoking rates, and in the long term, drive down health-care costs throughout New York state.”

The Smoking Gun

pichie — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:54:03 +0000

Women Catch Up To Men On Lung Cancer Risk

Forbes Pharma and Healthcare 1/25/1013 @ 9:42am

The horror that was the Sandy Hook massacre has finally precipitated a substantive call-to-action in the United States — a debate about who should have what kind of gun. Mass shootings aside, guns have reliably killed around 30,000 US citizens each year for the past decade.

But two papers in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine remind us that smoking tobacco products, also legal, kills six times as many US citizens annually.

Almost 200,000 people. Dead. And much easier to prevent than gun deaths.

That’s the equivalent of my city — Durham, North Carolina — being completely obliterated every year. Yes, Durham. Ironically, The-City-That-Tobacco-Built.

If you read no further, the three major take-home points are:

Smoking remains a widespread and expensive contributor to human suffering, especially among minority and low-income groups.
Women have truly gained equality with men in the sad statistic of relative risk of death due to smoking: about 25 times greater than for either gender who never smoked.
The good news: it’s never too late to experience the health benefits of quitting smoking

Dr. Steven Schroeder at the University of California, San Francisco wrote in his introduction to these two articles that:

[T]he importance of smoking as a health hazard needs to be elevated. More women die of lung cancer than of breast cancer. But there is no “race for the cure” for lung cancer, no brown ribbon, and no group analogous to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Because smoking has become a stigmatized behavior concentrated among persons of low social status, it risks becoming invisible to those who set health policies and research priorities.

You’ve come a long way, baby — sadly.

In the first study, Dr. Prahbat Jha and colleagues sought to answer how serious the smoking problem remains today and how effective smoking cessation programs have been on health in the years after quitting. The researchers examined the records of almost 217,000 Americans who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2004. This information was then linked to the National Death Index (yes, such a database really exists).

Are you a woman hoping to live to age 80? If you never smoked, the study estimates that your chances were pretty good among the survey group: 70%. But that drops to 38% for current smokers.

Men who never smoked? A 61% chance to make it to 80. Smokers? A paltry 26%.

Let’s put that another way, and in the words of the researchers. Jha and colleagues found that, “[a]mong current smokers, survival was shorter byabout 11 years for women and by about 12 years for men, as compared with participants who had never smoked.”

The more prevalent causes of death for male and female smokers were lung cancer and other respiratory diseases followed by heart disease, stroke, and vascular disease. But the researchers found that even atypical causes of death such as accidents and injuries were elevated in smokers.

A very concerning trend among women aged 65-69 is that the pool of former smokers to current smokers was about 2 to 1 while the ratio was 4 to 1 in men of the same age. There’s something in this observation that deserves more study. Are women less motivated to quit or are they less successful when they embark on smoking cessation programs?

Getting your life back

But there’s some fantastic news in here: quitting smoking, even late in life, confers great health benefits. In fact — attention, hipsters — those quitting smoking between 25 and 34 had long-term survival nearly equal to that of never-smokers. Yes, an increase of a decade of life.

Quitters in the 45 to 54 range: six extra years. In the 55 to 64 range: four extra years. Heck, you could go get another college degree.

In the second study, Dr. Michael Thun at the American Cancer Society and his co-authors examined 50 years of smoking-related health data collected by the organization since 1959. Unlike the previous study that was more heavily weighted with minority participants and a wider range of education level, the ACS study population was more white and more likely to have a higher education level than the general population.

Nevertheless, the data show that women have indeed caught up to men in smoking-related health problems and death. For example, lung cancer deaths in women increased by almost a factor of 17 in the last 50 years, with half of that occurring in the last 20 years. The timing is coincident with the increased

Similar to the previous study, Thun and colleagues showed that quitting smoking by age 40 almost completely erases the increased risk of smoking-related death.

Some other nuances were observed. Despite the plateau in smoking rates in men in the 1980s and their subsequent decrease, men still have an increased risk of death due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The authors propose that changes since the 1950s in cigarette design and constituents that affected nicotine absorption had led smokers to inhale more deeply, exposing more of the lung to the damaging effects of smoke components. The authors cite that such changes resulted in a shift in the type of lung damage observed from smoking by the 1970s.

Revive the national call-to-action

Taken together, we shouldn’t be terribly surprised by these studies but the health risks of smoking seems to have been diluted on the national fear radar. We’re doing much better on keeping high school kids from starting to smoke but have now pushed the typical smoking initiation time further into the 20s. But the number of smoking-related deaths is still at a couple hundred thousand American per year.

And women are suffering these effects more than ever. The fact bears repeating that more US women die of lung cancer than breast cancer.

But the good news is truly good news: unequivocal proof from two large studies with different study populations that quitting smoking anytime gives you back all or part of the decade you lose by continuing to smoke. Increased attention to funding and promoting smoking cessation programs may be the most important tactic we can take to prevent the strain of smoking on the healthcare system — and on personal and family suffering.

Resolution: Quit

pichie — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:51:53 +0000

More smokers make New Year’s resolution to quit

By Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily Twice as many smokers say they plan to quit the habit this year compared with last year, a new poll by an advocacy group finds.

Thirty-four percent of the U.S. smokers surveyed who made any New Year’s resolution said they plan to quit smoking in 2013, compared with 18 percent in 2012, the poll found.

To conduct the poll, researchers with Legacy, an organization that advocates that people quit smoking, surveyed 1,550 U.S. smokers ages 18 and over via email who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetimes. The survey was not a representative sample of the U.S. population.

The majority, 67 percent, said the increasing cost of cigarettes was the main reason for quitting, and 58 percent cited concerns over the health risks linked to smoking.

More than half, 53 percent, said they had not spoken with their doctor about quitting in the last year. This finding “shows that we have a significant missed opportunity on our hands,” said Cheryl Healton, president of Legacy. “Health-care providers play a critical role in reaching smokers with support and resources for quitting,” Healton said.

Even a 10-minute conversation with a doctor who delivers advice about quitting can help, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Smoking has been shown to increase the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and death from chronic obstructive lung disease, the CDC says.

Both prescription medications and over-the-counter cessation therapies, such as gums, lozenges and patches, can improve a smoker’s chances of quitting, the researchers said. Of those surveyed, 39 percent said they had used a nonprescription product in their last attempt to quit smoking, and 13 percent said they had used a prescription product.

Last year, those who made a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking stopped smoking for about a month, on average, before lighting up again; and for many, it was the longest they had abstained from the habit.

Previous studies have suggested tobacco smoking increases the number of receptors in the brain that bind to nicotine, making it difficult for smokers to quit.

Withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, anxiety and increased appetite, can lead people to relapse, according to the CDC.

Few people who want to quit smoking have a long-term plan, the researchers said. Speaking with a health-care provider and making a plan for the future can help, the researchers said.

Third-hand Smoke

pichie — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

What is third-hand smoke? Is it hazardous?

Researchers warn cigarette dangers may be even more far-reaching

By Coco Ballantyne

Ever take a whiff of a smoker’s hair and feel faint from the pungent scent of cigarette smoke? Or perhaps you have stepped into an elevator and wondered why it smells like someone has lit up when there is not a smoker in sight. Welcome to the world of third-hand smoke.

“Third-hand smoke is tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette has been extinguished,” says Jonathan Winickoff, a pediatrician at the Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Boston and author of a study on the new phenomenon published in the journal Pediatrics. According to the study, a large number of people, particularly smokers, have no idea that third-hand smoke—the cocktail of toxins that linger in carpets, sofas, clothes and other materials hours or even days after a cigarette is put out—is a health hazard for infants and children. Of the 1,500 smokers and nonsmokers Winickoff surveyed, the vast majority agreed that second-hand smoke is dangerous. But when asked whether they agreed with the statement, “Breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children,” only 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers answered “yes.”

“Third-hand smoke,” a term coined by Winickoff’s research team, is a relatively new concept but one that has worried researchers and nonsmokers for several years. “The third-hand smoke idea—concern over that—has been around for a long time. It’s only recently been given a name and studied,” says Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. “The level of toxicity in cigarette smoke is just astronomical when compared to other environmental toxins [such as particles found in automobile exhaust],” he adds, but notes that he is not aware of any studies directly linking third-hand smoke to disease [as opposed to second-hand smoke, which has been associated with disease].

ScientificAmerican.com asked Winickoff to explain exactly what third-hand smoke is and why it poses a public health risk.

How exactly do you distinguish between second- and third- hand smoke?
Third-hand smoke refers to the tobacco toxins that build up over time—one cigarette will coat the surface of a certain room [a second cigarette will add another coat, and so on]. The third-hand smoke is the stuff that remains [after visible or "second-hand smoke" has dissipated from the air]…. You can’t really quantify it, because it depends on the space…. In a tiny space like a car the deposition is really heavy…. Smokers [may] smoke in another room or turn on a fan. They don’t see the smoke going into a child’s nose; they think that if they cannot see it, it’s not affecting [their children].

Smokers themselves are also contaminated…smokers actually emit toxins [from clothing and hair].

Why is third-hand smoke dangerous?
The 2006 surgeon general’s report says there is no risk-free level of tobacco exposure…. There are 250 poisonous toxins found in cigarette smoke. One such substance is lead. Very good studies show that tiny levels of exposure are associated with diminished IQ.

What do you consider the most dangerous compound in cigarette smoke?
I would say cyanide, which is used in chemical weapons. It actually interferes with the release of oxygen to tissues. It competitively binds to hemoglobin [meaning it competes with oxygen for binding sites on the blood's oxygen-carrying molecule, hemoglobin]. Basically people with cyanide poison turn blue…. [And] arsenic, that is a poison used to kill mammals. We [used to] use it to kill rats. And there it is in cigarette smoke.

Why are the risks associated with exposure to third-hand smoke different for children and adults?
The developing brain is uniquely susceptible to extremely low levels of toxins. Remember how we talked about the layers of toxin deposits on surfaces? Who gets exposure to those surfaces? Babies and children are closer to [surfaces such as floors]. They tend to touch or even mouth [put their mouths to] the contaminated surfaces. Imagine a teething infant.

Children ingest twice the amount of dust that grown-ups do. Let’s say a grown-up weighs 150 pounds [68 kilograms]. Let’s say a baby weighs 15 pounds [seven kilograms]. The infant ingests twice the dust [due to faster respiration and proximity to dusty surfaces]. Effectively, they’ll get 20 times the exposure.

Studies in rats suggest that tobacco toxin exposure is the leading cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). We think it is [caused by] respiratory suppression.

Quit on Turkey Day

pichie — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:54:11 +0000

Quit Smoking this Thanksgiving Day: 5 Tips to Supress Craving

by DRHFROMIPAD

One night to go and it’s Thanksgiving day – one of our most awaited days! This is the day when we all stop working for a while to meet our closest friends, family and relatives who we don’t always have the time to spend with. It’s the day when we put out the special recipes that had been passed by our great grandmothers to other grandmas. Everyone’s excited about this special day. The food, the laughter, and the love – we all get to share them on this glorious time of the year.

But if you’re a smoker who’s trying to quit, the Thanksgiving Day may not be easy to deal with. Sure there will be a few days of feasts and beers. And what could be a better pair for beer than cigarettes? It is most likely that some of your friends and relatives are smokers. And when you see them lighting up while exchanging stories, you are going to experience an intense craving. You might think that lighting up just once is not bad. But one cigarette can lead to two, three, and four. And the habit may continue even after Thanksgiving. Before you know it, you have just gone through a relapse!

Don’t worry, there are plenty of things you can do to suppress cigarette craving during this special occasion.

Delay. Whenever you feel the urge to smoke, delay it for 5-10 minutes. Studies show that craving vanishes after 10 minutes. Divert your attention. Instead of lighting up, help your spouse or parents prepare the foods.
Keep the distance. If you saw your friends or relatives smoking, do not approach them yet. Let them finish their cigarettes and allow several minutes to pass so you don’t get to inhale the smoke residue.
Limit your intake of fatty foods. As much as possible, limit your consumption of meat, oily foods, and unhealthy treats. They can intensify your cigarette craving. Not only that, they can also increase your waistline! Be a peaky eater. Prefer healthy foods all the time. This does not mean you have to ditch the fatty dishes. Just get a smaller portion.
Tell them you’re quitting. Surely, one of your former smoking buddies is going to ask you if you want to smoke. It’s always okay to say no. But explain to them why. Tell them you’re in the process of quitting smoking. Seek their support. You cannot do it alone.
Get support. During tempting times like this, you can count on to smoking cessation help that you can get from professional doctors. There are medications and treatments that can suppress your cigarette cravings for long hours.
Remember your goal. You are probably quitting because you wanted to be healthy. You wanted to have more years with your family and enjoy the rest of your days living a happy and fulfilling life. STICK to your goal. No matter what it is that is inspiring you to quit, hold on to it.

Getting Ready for the New School Year?

pichie — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 03:26:19 +0000

Talk to Your Kids about Tobacco Use

(Kearney) – In the next month thousands of young people in Buffalo County will be heading back to school. In the flurry to get ready for the school year, parents may not be thinking about keeping their kids from using tobacco products, but the start of the school year is an excellent time to talk to kids about tobacco use.

“Once kids start using tobacco, they can become addicted quickly,” said Jenny Brown, Buffalo County Tobacco Free Coordinator, with the Buffalo County Tobacco Free Coalition. “That addiction can lead to a lifetime of serious health problems. The best way for parents to protect their children from tobacco-related health problems is to prevent tobacco use altogether.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 90% of smokers start smoking before they’re 18 and almost no one starts after age 25. According to the 2011 Nebraska Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 15% of Nebraska high school students smoke and 10% of male Nebraska high school students use smokeless tobacco.

To help keep your children from starting to use tobacco, take these important steps:

Tell your children how dangerous smoking is – and how addictive all tobacco products are.
Make your home and your car tobacco-free for everyone – friends and guests as well as family members.
Tell your children you expect them to be tobacco-free.
Don’t let your children see movies, TV programming, or video games that show tobacco use.

For more information on tobacco prevention in Buffalo County, call 308-237-5113 or visit www.answersabouttobacco.org.

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Buffalo County Tobacco Free Coalition is a collaborative effort that focuses on keeping youth from starting to use tobacco, reducing access to tobacco products, and increasing awareness about the dangers of secondhand smoke. It’s funded by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services/Tobacco Free Nebraska Program as a result of the tobacco master settlement agreement.

Third Hand Smoke

pichie — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:08:29 +0000

A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air for their children, but experts now have identified a related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.

That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.

Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.

“Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor ofpediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

“When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car. Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”

Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”

The study reported on attitudes toward smoking in 1,500 households across the United States. It found that the vast majority of both smokers and nonsmokers were aware that second-hand smoke is harmful to children. Some 95 percent of nonsmokers and 84 percent of smokers agreed with the statement that “inhaling smoke from a parent’s cigarette can harm the health of infants and children.”

But far fewer of those surveyed were aware of the risks of third-hand smoke. Since the term is so new, the researchers asked people if they agreed with the statement that “breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children.” Only 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers agreed with that statement, which researchers interpreted as acknowledgement of the risks of third-hand smoke.

The belief that second-hand smoke harms children’s health was not independently associated with strict smoking bans in homes and cars, the researchers found. On the other hand, the belief that third-hand smoke was harmful greatly increased the likelihood the respondent also would enforce a strict smoking ban at home, Dr. Winickoff said.

“That tells us we’re onto an important new health message here,” he said. “What we heard in focus group after focus group was, ‘I turn on the fan and the smoke disappears.’ It made us realize how many people think about second-hand smoke — they’re telling us they know it’s bad but they’ve figured out a way to do it.”

The data was collected in a national random-digit-dial telephone survey done between September and November 2005. The sample was weighted by race and gender, based on census information.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior.

“The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”

Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic.

Be Picky

pichie — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:16:25 +0000

The purpose of the “Be Picky” campaign is to encourage landlords/realtors to change policy, making their rentals 100% smoke free; as well as to encourage students to “Be Picky” when apartment hunting and request smoke free apartments.

Recently, the Peer Health Education department conducted the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment at UNK and found that 84% of college students prefer smoke free housing. Because of this percentage, it is our hope to provide increased access for students and residents of the Kearney area to listings of smoke free housing.

Watch our videos below and be sure to download your RESOURCE GUIDE (144)!

Listen to our BE PICKY RADIO SPOT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mZe5ZkozBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv1YLhcOuSE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9BOS-VprzU

2nd Hand Dwellings

pichie — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:48:05 +0000

Non-smoking apartment dwellers have secondhand smoke risk

By Karen Rowan, Managing Editor, MyHealthNewsDaily.com

People who live in apartment buildings, especially those with children, breathe in tobacco smoke even if no one in their own household smokes, a new study shows.

Researchers found that about one third of study participants living in apartment buildings, condominiums and other multi-unit housing reported smelling smoke in their buildings, and about half of those residents reported smelling smoke in their own units. People were only eligible to participate in the study if no members of their household smoked in the home.

The findings also showed that 41 percent of people with children reported smelling smoke in their building, whereas 26 percent of people with no children said the same.

That may be because people with children, on average, are poorer than people without children, so they tend to live in buildings with larger numbers of other people who are smoking, said study researcher Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, an associate professor in pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston. There is a general association between being poorer and smoking, he said.

But taken together with another recent study, the findings mean that half of parents whose children are exposed to tobacco smoke don’t know it, Winickoff said. In that earlier study, Winickoff and his colleagues found that nine out of 10 children living in apartments had a chemical called cotinine in their blood. Cotinine is an indicator that a person has breathed in tobacco smoke.

“We know that if you smell it, you child will have evidence of tobacco smoke exposure in their blood. But just because you don’t smell it, doesn’t mean you’re not exposed,” Winickoff said.

Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke has been linked with higher rates of asthma, pneumonia and ear infections in children, even when researchers take into account other factors linked to these conditions, such as poverty and race, he said.

Some policy makers are making efforts that could improve the health of children living in apartment buildings, Winickoff said. Public housing authorities in Maine and in Boston, for example, will soon implement mandates that buildings become smoke-free, and in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is advocating for disclosure rules, which would require all multi-unit buildings to clearly state whether smoking is permitted in the building.

“People will have a choice to live in a building that has clean air, and I think we want people to have choices,” Winickoff said.

The next step in his research, Winickoff said, is to look at how best to raise awareness among people living in multi-unit housing of the impact of allowing smoking in buildings.