When I see smokers with babies, I really want to yell at them...

[Sophrosyne1]

Given the fact that smoking can increase the chance of cot death, breathing problems, glue ear and a whole host of other nasties (not to mention cancer) why is it that every time I go into town or for a walk in my local area I see 'parents' who think it is OK to smoke all over their children? It makes me want to yell very loudly!!!

Some people just don't seem to 'believe' those health risks. Family is the most important thing to my MIL. Her children and her grandchildren are her life. She is a heavy smoker (very heavy) and has smoked in close proximity to her daughters children since they have been born. Considering what a good, kind person she is and how much she loves her grandchildren, I just can't understand it unless she just thinks that it isn't dangerous. I also think that because she has smokes so heavily for so long, she doesn't realise how oppressive and uncomfortable the air gets in her house.

I was way to paranoid about cot death and the thought of little pink lungs having to breath in air that makes my 28 year old lungs ache, that the truth is that we have avoided her house because of the smoke. It does upset me though.

I just think some smokers are just in denial.

But can I just point out that smoking is getting less and less now. I can see in 10 or 20 years it being virtually wiped out as each generation dies. I know some of the younger generation now smoke but nothing like the amount of my parents generation. Crikey what an earth are they going to blame all these illnesses on then? Surely now, the study must show that these illnesses and SID are going down if they are all down to living with smokers. Also even smokers now tend to go outside, when I was young my parents smoked in front of me and in the car, this was normal. Ok this happens now and again now, but you have to admit that most responsible parents who smoke don't smoke in the car or in the house, so I just don't understand how these figures stack up. You simply cannot go round blaming it all on smokers.

DaphneMoon.

Yes the prevalence of smoking is going down, and yes the prevalence of smoking related diseases is also going down.

SIDS has decined dramatically - but the big decline was caused by the Back to Sleep Campaign. We have succeeded in preventing SIDS, but this has increased the proportion of cot deaths that are caused by tobacco smoke (when pregnant and after birth).

In the case of heart attacks, people quitting smoking prevented nearly 30,000 deaths from heart disease between 1981 and 2000 in the UK.

Lung cancer has a long incubation period, so we recently reached the peak of lung cancer incidence - the numbers of people dying of lung cancer have started to fall, reflecting the decline in smoking rates over the last few years.

So yes, we expect that smoking related illnesses in general wil decline as prevalence falls. However, other threats, like poor diet and lack of exercise are likely to keep preventable mortality high in the West. And in the developing world, the tobacco companies are relentlessly pushing thier products, and tobacco-related illness is yet to peak. Worldwide, tobaco use kills more people that HIV-AIDS and malaria combined - about 5 million people a year.