BANGKOK, Dec 3 – Nearly 90 per cent of Thai children, aged under five, are at risk of damage from second hand smoke from their parents who use tobacco, according to research revealed today.
Siriwan Pitayarangsan, director of the Tobacco Control Research Knowledge and Management Centre (TRC), said a close monitoring of 80 households studied in Nakhon Ratchasima province in October- December last year found nearly 92 per cent of the toddlers suffered from flu and over 8 per cent from allergies and ailments related to inhaling cigarette smoke.
The TRC called on parents, especially fathers, to keep their houses smoke-free and prevent their children from becoming second hand smokers.
According to the research, 87.5 per cent of residents in the homes—including fathers, grandfathers and other relatives, were smokers, and 70 per cent of them smoked while under-five-year-old children were at home.
Almost all of the adults were aware that cigarette smoke was hazardous to children’s health but they continued smoking despite pleas from family members to stop
Dr Wanaporn Anantaseri of the Faculty of Medical Science, Prince of Songkhla University, said children under five are highly prone to respiratory infection and that smoke inhalation increases the risk.
