One in five kids still at secondhand smoke risk

The number of children exposed to cigarette smoke in cars remains stubbornly high, as the Government continues to argue a ban is not necessary.

New evidence from Otago University in Wellington shows one in five children are exposed to secondhand smoking in cars – a figure that has increased despite an overall drop in the number of smokers.

Study author Richard Edwards, professor of public health, said the findings strengthened calls for legislation to ban smoking in cars when children were present, as was the case in Britain, as well as several states and provinces in Australia, Canada and the United States.

‘‘Twenty per cent of kids exposed to a proven, avoidable health hazard is completely unacceptable. This causes pneumonia, asthma and cot deaths ... these are preventable health effects,’’ Edwards said. ‘‘New Zealand is falling well short of international best practice on protecting children from this completely avoidable harm.’’

Polynesian children were especially at risk, with close to one-third of Maori students surveyed in 2015 reporting being in a car in the previous week in which someone was smoking. The figure was more than a quarter among Pasifika students in 2015, the most recent year for which data was available.

Porirua GP Dougal Thorburn backed the call for government intervention: ‘‘We need to do what we can to protect our really vulnerable citizens which, in particular, includes children.

‘‘My view is that we need to be able to create environments in which children can grow up and not have their health adversely affected [when] they don’t have a choice,’’ Thorburn said.

‘‘I think [banning] it would send a clear signal that the Government is keen to do what it can to support the optimal health of vulnerable citizens, including our children.’’ The study, published today in The

New Zealand Medical Journal, surveyed between 19,000 and 29,000 year 10 students every year between 2006 and 2015, and asked whether people had smoked around them in a car or van over the past week.

While the number of children exposed dropped from 30 per cent in 2006 to 18.5 per cent in 2013, the figures rose in 2015 to 19.8 per cent. The increase was across all ethnic groups.

‘‘If the exposure reported in 2015 ... applied to all year 10 students, then we estimate that 11,787 14 to 15-year-olds were exposed to smoking in cars each week in that year,’’ the study says.

A petition to ban smoking in cars was presented to Parliament in October 2015, and the health select committee later recommended a ban in cars carrying children under 18.

However, the Government ignored the recommendation, saying ‘‘present initiatives are sufficient enough to deter’’ it.

Edwards believed a ban would be in keeping with plans for New Zealand to become smokefree by 2025.

‘‘There will be some people who will not obey the law, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a law ... if something is wrong and is worth legislating against, then it’s worth legislating against.

‘‘Sometimes these laws can be very, very surprising. For example, with seatbelts, we generally could get around half of people wearing them. When the law came in, it went up to about 95 per cent almost straight away.’’

Associate Health Minister Nicky Wagner said the variety of smoking cessation programmes already in place had resulted in 15 per cent fewer smokers.

‘‘Cars are not the only place children are exposed to secondhand smoke. The most effective way to protect them is to ensure parents and caregivers have the support they need to quit,’’ she said.

The Government has implemented a wide range of evidence-based interventions, including legalising e-cigarettes, implementing standardised packaging, and broadening smokefree policies at the local and regional level, he said.

‘‘Mass media education and marketing campaigns, such as the Health Promotion Agency’s ‘Stop Before You Start’, support the Government’s commitment to reduce smoking prevalence, no matter where the smoking takes place.’’