Wednesday, January 16, 2002
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Wednesday, January 16, 2002 |
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More will come to see abuse in parents' smoke Günther Rückl has very good points in his Dec. 5 letter ("Parents' secondhand smoke is really a form of child abuse"). Smoking around children can be child abuse if we use the criteria that if something hurts a child then it is abuse. If a person slapped a child on the ear, that could be child abuse, for it would be painful and even possibly burst the eardrum, leading to loss of hearing or even deafness. Smoking around children dramatically increases the risk of colds, flu and pneumonia, thus ear infections, which can also lead to deafness. Some will say that that is not true child abuse because the people don't intent to harm a child. However, the child is harmed and sometimes permanently. I believe that putting tubes in children's ears is still the most frequently performed operation on children, and much of those would not be needed if there was no smoking around the children. Also, most forget about the link between smoking and the more classical child abuse. Children exposed to tobacco smoking have more ear and other infections. What do babies do when they are sick? They cry more, and sometimes that's all the time. The adults respond with rage and they stop the crying with violence. Researchers estimate the excess number of asthma attacks, ear infections, colds, flu and such that children growing up in smoke experience. They tell us that smoking during pregnancy greatly increases the number of stillborns, miscarriages, birth defects and other negative outcomes. Our newspapers carry stories about children killed or harmed in cigarette-caused fires. Maybe the intention of the adults is not to harm children, but their intentions are to smoke even around children, and this does harm others. Whether it is abuse, or child endangerment or negligence, it still harms other people. As Günther mentioned, there is an easy way to eliminate most of the harm by just going outside, and never smoke in cars with children. Not long ago, people could hear in the apartment next door a spouse being beaten, and they would say nothing. Children could be spanked to the point of abuse even in public without anyone saying stop. Someday more people will say to smokers that they should go outside to smoke, so they don't harm their children with secondhand smoke. But from the adult viewpoint, why do they want to risk their children's health? That requires them to take the children to the doctor or hospital more, buy expensive medicines, and tend the sick. Maybe they need to remember that every dollar they spend on medical care is one less dollar they can spend on cigarettes (but that would increase the risk their children becoming orphans). D. Gordon Draves President, GASP (Georgians Against Smoking Pollution) East Point
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