More Homes Go Smoke-Free, but Exposure Remains a Health Threat
These days you’re pretty much guaranteed a smoke-free experience in stores, restaurants and on the job. But those laws usually don’t reach inside the home. Though more than three-quarters of homes are now smoke-free, millions of children and other relatives of smokers are still exposed to secondhand smoke, a study finds.
The number of smoke-free homes rose from 43 percent in 1992-1993 to 83 percent in 2010-2011, according to a study of Census Bureau data published Thursday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
That’s a result both of people who don’t smoke telling their smoking friends to take it outside, and smokers doing the same at home. The national prevalence of smoke-free homes rose from 57 percent to 91 percent in families without an adult smoker, and from 9.6 percent to 46 percent in families with a smoker.
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