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• TIMOTHY ANDERSON, Plaintiff-Appellee vs RACHEAL ANDERSON nka HILL, Defendant-Appellant (PDF) 

{¶1} Defendant-appellant, Racheal Anderson nka Hill, appeals a decision of the Warren County Common Pleas Court, Domestic Relations Division, regarding custody and parenting time matters involving her daughter. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the trial court. . . .

On April 3, 2008, Marilyn moved the court to modify Racheal's parenting time with Victoria, and further moved the court for an order prohibiting all parties from smoking cigarettes in Victoria's presence. Marilyn argued that Victoria had expressed concerns, fears and reluctance over spending time with her mother, and had returned home from parenting time smelling of cigarette smoke as a result of Racheal smoking in her home and car. Marilyn also requested that a guardian ad litem be appointed for Victoria. . . .

In her third assignment of error, Racheal challenges the trial court's imposition of a no-smoking ban upon the parties. Specifically, she argues that there was no evidence before the court that Victoria suffered from any health problems or had an increased sensitivity to smoke, and she contends that there must be some evidence that a child suffers physical harm before the court can restrict a parent from engaging in a lawful activity. Racheal also points to the fact that the smoking ban is not limited to the parties' homes or to the parties themselves, and argues that the ban has effectively restricted the places where she can take Victoria.

{¶31} The trial court adopted the magistrate's finding that although there was no evidence presented to indicate that Victoria has any health problems or an increased sensitivity to cigarette smoke, it was not in Victoria's best interest to be exposed to such an activity. Indeed, other Ohio courts have made reference to the "avalanche of authoritative scientific studies" which indicate that "secondhand smoke constitutes a real and substantial danger to children because it causes and aggravates serious diseases in children, which danger is both a 'relevant factor' and a 'physical health factor'" that a trial court is required to consider in making a best interest determination under R.C. 3109.04(F). In Day, the Fifth District Court of Appeals found no abuse of discretion in the trial court's imposition of a no-smoking ban, noting that the Ohio Supreme Court has recognized conclusions made by the United States Surgeon General, as well as other health agencies, that "secondhand smoke impairs the respiratory health of thousands of young children." Id., quoting D.A.B.E., Inc. v. Toledo-Lucas Cty. Bd. of Health . . . . Regardless of the condition of their health, secondhand smoke is considered a danger to all children.

{¶32} Based on the foregoing, Racheal has not shown that the trial court's decision to restrict Victoria's exposure to cigarette smoke was arbitrary, unconscionable, or unreasonable so as to constitute an abuse of its discretion.

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• Court bans mom from smoking near child 

No smoking around your daughter.

That was a Warren County court's order to a mother last December - and now an appeals court has sided with that ruling, taking the unusual step of using "judicial notice" to conclude that second-hand smoke is a danger to a child.

In a decision that could apply to many other child-custody and visitation cases, the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals in Middletown upheld the Warren court's decision forbidding anyone from smoking around Victoria Anderson, 9. Since she was a baby, she has lived with her great-grandmother in suburban Dayton, Ohio; she gets "parenting time" with her divorced mom and dad.

In April 2008, Victoria's paternal great-grandmother, Marilyn Anderson, objected to the child's mother, Racheal Hill, smoking around Victoria during visits. The child returned home "smelling of cigarette smoke as a result of Racheal smoking in her home and car," court records say.

Eight months later, the court ordered all parties to protect Victoria from second-hand smoke; the appeals court, which oversees an eight-county area, upheld the smoking ban Oct. 26.

Disputes over parental smoking have been cropping up in family-court cases nationwide, legal experts say, and the cases highlight two competing interests: A parent's right to smoke versus a child's right to breathe smoke-free air. . . .

the court did something unusual. It "took judicial notice" - without anyone presenting proof in court - of an "avalanche of authoritative scientific studies" that say second-hand smoking poses risks to children.

Taking judicial notice is fairly unusual, said Marianna Brown Bettman, a University of Cincinnati law professor.

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Taking judicial notice
The Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals "took judicial notice" of an "avalanche of authoritative scientific studies" that say second-hand smoking poses risks to children, and so ordered all parties to protect a 9-year-old from second-hand smoke.

• Almost half of all Victorian smokers still light up around children 

Almost half of Victoria's cigarette smokers still light up around children, despite an increase over the last decade in the number of homes that enforce a no-smoking policy.

New research released today by the Cancer Council Victoria found significant improvement in the efforts of parents to keep tobacco smoke away from their kids.

In 1998 just over half of surveyed households had home smoking bans, but in the latest survey just under three quarters of respondents to a phone survey said their household's regular smoker always or usually smoked outside.

If there is a child in the house, it is even more likely (82 per cent) the smoker will go outside.

However the researchers said it was not an even trend. Parents were much more likely to protect their children from cigarette smoke when they were aged under five. There was a belief that as their child gets older they are better able to tolerate or avoid smoke exposure. Also, households in lower socio-economic areas were less likely to enforce home smoking bans.

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• Call to ban smokers from funded IVF 

Couples who smoke, or are overweight, should be denied taxpayer-funded access to fertility treatments until they take steps to improve their health, a visiting expert says.

Professor Nicholas Macklon says Australia should follow the example of New Zealand and other countries, which do not publicly fund assisted reproduction services for couples who are smokers or obese.

"I suggest that Australia should consider this model," said Prof Macklon, who is head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Southampton University in England.

"... and patients should not expect to undertake infertility treatment unless they are prepared to give themselves the best chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby. . . .

Prof Macklon spoke at the Fertility Society of Australia's annual meeting, a three-day event which got under way in Perth on Monday.

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Adults still smoking around children 

FOUR in 10 Victorian smokers continue to light up around children, new figures show.

Data released from a Cancer Council Victoria survey of 4,500 people also reveals 11 per cent of regular smokers either usually or always smoke inside the home, even if living with children.

Royal Children's Hospital pediatrician Dr Rob Roseby said smoking increases the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and elevates the risk of contracting meningococcal disease by a staggering 700 per cent. . . .

A new Quit ad campaign on the dangers of exposing children to secondhand smoke will air in Victoria from Sunday.

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Police: Mom Left Baby Home Alone To Rob Store Of Tobacco  

Jacqueline Moore, 20, of Rockwood, is accused of putting on a mask and pointing a toy gun at a clerk at the S & S Quick Stop. Police said Moore demanded all of the snuff tobacco behind the counter. The clerk refused, and Moore allegedly fled the scene.

Moore was arrested on charges including leaving her 5-month-old baby home alone.

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Smoking, food ban for mother 

A MOTHER has failed in her bid to quash court orders relating to access visits with her daughter, including that she not smoke around the girl and refrain from giving her too much junk food.

The orders were among several imposed by the Children's Court last year after the woman's daughter, then aged four, was removed from her care in 2007.

For legal reasons the girl can be known only as Allegra. Her parents cannot be identified.

In January last year the girl was placed in the care of the Department of Community Services, with her father to assume sole responsibility for her care after 12 months. At the time the mother gave undertakings that, until Allegra turned 18, she would not see the girl while under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs, allow her to be exposed to domestic violence, or denigrate or criticise Allegra's father or his family in her daughter's presence.

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Risk Factors and Viruses Associated With Hospitalization Due to Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Canadian Inuit Children: A Case-Control Study 

Conclusions: Smoking during pregnancy, place of residence, Inuit race, lack of breast-feeding, and overcrowding were all independently associated with increased risk of hospital admission for LRTI among Inuit children less than 2 years of age. Future research on the role of adoption and genetics on the health of Inuit children are required.

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ORR: Respiratory tract infections in Inuit children: "Set thine house in order"  

Lower respiratory tract infection is a major cause of illness and death among the Inuit children of Nunavut. . . .

The search for risk factors for lower respiratory tract infection in Inuit children has taken researchers to the 3 corners of the epidemiologic triangle: environment, host and agent. In this issue of CMAJ, Kovesi and colleagues6 explore the relation between environmental indoor air quality and lower respiratory tract infection in Inuit children. . . .

The prevalence of smokers in the study sample (93.9% of households) and a failure to differentiate the location of smoking (inside or outside the house) precluded any meaningful analysis of this variable as a risk factor for lower respiratory tract infection in the household child. . . .

Well-designed prospective community studies to determine the full spectrum of infectious causes of respiratory tract infection in Inuit children are lacking. With regard to the host, we have an incomplete understanding of genetic markers for susceptibility or resistance to infectious and inflammatory disease among the Inuit. Deficiencies in humoral and cell-mediated host genetic response to infections and to selected vaccines have been identified among the Inuit.4,15

Apparently heeding the admonishment of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to "Set thine house in order" (Isaiah 38:1), the government of Nunavut developed the Nunavut Ten-Year Inuit Housing Action Plan,9 which calls on the federal government to honour its obligations to the Inuit of Nunavut. The word "thine" should be understood to encompass joint "ownership" of the task on the part of funders, designers, builders and occupants. The word "order" defines an environment that supports and promotes health in its broadest sense. . . .

Key points

* Inuit children experience high rates of illness and death from lower respiratory tract infection

* Overcrowding (due to an undersupply of housing) and inadequate ventilation (because of high occupant density, construction problems and harsh climate) of houses have been identified as associated factors

* Healthy housing in northern communities is required to improve the health and well-being of Inuit children

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• Eighty per cent of pregnant women in Nunavut smoke 

When Ottawa’s Bob Reid convened a meeting several years ago to discuss Nunavut’s smoking epidemic, the territory’s health officials, Inuit elders and leaders all shared an overriding concern.

Nunavut’s expectant mothers smoked too much, they told him, and required urgent help.

“One of the things that was appalling to community members was the degree to which women continued to smoke throughout pregnancy,” says Reid, associate director of the rehabilitation centre at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

Reid, an expert in smoking cessation and behaviour modification, works with heart patients trying to break their addiction to tobacco.

About one-quarter of the 7,000 patients who visit the institute every year are smokers. (Smoking is a leading risk factor for heart disease.)

But the scale of the epidemic among Nunavut’s expectant mothers is of a different magnitude: studies show that up to 80 per cent of pregnant women in the territory smoke.

That level of tobacco use has profound effects on the health of Nunavut’s infants, who suffer the world’s highest rates of hospitalization for pneumonia, bronchiolitis and other respiratory infections.

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• ‘What are these kids breathing?’ 

So began what Kovesi calls the most important research of his career. For the past 10 years, he has sought to explain why the children of Baffin Island have the world’s highest rates of hospitalization for pneumonia, bronchiolitis and other lower respiratory tract infections. . . .

It was well known that Nunavut had high smoking rates, but Kovesi was convinced the problem had to go beyond that since parts of Asia and Africa had similar smoking rates, but not the same kind of pediatric lung disease.

So he led a research team that set about testing air quality inside Nuvavut’s homes. In one study that tested air quality inside 49 homes in four Baffin Island communities, he recorded smokers in 94 per cent of residences.

“Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke was nearly universal,” the 2007 study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, concluded.

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• Spencer Azizul plays on the emotion in anti-smoking ad 

AS this year's Tak Nak anti-smoking campaign enters the final laps, it culminates in showing not just the physical effects of smoking on the smokers but also the emotional toll on both the smokers and their families.

Spencer Azizul Sdn Bhd, the advertising agency tasked with developing the Health Ministry campaign, began the year with graphic ads depicting diseases of smokers.

It has put in more ammunition since July. Spencer Azizul has introduced statistics into the Tak Nak print ads to better convince sceptics and has launched a three-minute TV commercial - the longest TV spot it has ever done.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told the agency that he wanted the commercial to show not only what smoking did to the smoker but also the effects of smoking on his family and others around him. . . .

Due to its length and budget constraint, the ad cannot be shown frequently, so the agency had to be very selective in the programmes chosen and the periods to air the commercial. It is mostly run during prime time.

Senior copywriter Juliet Tan says now that the ad showcases how families suffer, hopefully the family members of smokers would urge the smokers to stop. "If they get sick, the family members will have to take care of them."

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• The Guilt-Trip Casserole - Dinner and the Busy Family  

"I DON'T need family-dinner studies to guilt-trip me," said Shannon Rubio, a mother of three teenage boys from Spring, Tex. "I do it to myself."

But just in case, Mrs. Rubio, here is the latest, from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University:

Teenagers who eat with their families less than three times a week are more likely to turn to alcohol, tobacco and drugs than those who dine with their families five times a week. , , ,

Since the first CASA study in 1996 saw an association between the frequency of family dinners and rates of adolescent substance abuse, numerous other studies have pointed to the importance of the family dinner. They suggest that family dinners have a positive impact on nutrition, verbal abilities, mental health and workers' stress. The news media passionately presses the cause; it's a cornerstone of the slow-parenting movement. . . .

family dinner has become a red-hot item on the good-parent scorecard, by which mothers in particular judge one another and themselves, a tinderbox for networks like Twittermoms.com. (According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, women are responsible for about 80 percent of meals in the home.)

So it's not surprising that many parents, especially mothers, who work night shifts or long hours, or who, like Mrs. Rubio, have teenagers running every which way to activities, are painfully aware that nightly dinners 'round the table are something other families get to do.

Nor is it surprising that many others do veritable back flips to ensure that dinner and diners convene under the same roof, at the same time.

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New Research Reveals Majority of U.S. Families Live with Health and Safety 

According to new research from the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH), the majority of U.S. families (67%) live in a home with at least one major health risk.

NCHH recently surveyed adults (aged 18 and older) to gauge their levels of awareness of the common health and safety hazards found in many homes. The results reveal that although most people realize serious health problems may result from the way their homes are built and maintained, they have not taken action to create a healthy and safe home environment for their loved ones.

In response to the new research, NCHH is encouraging families to make healthy housing a priority and promoting the Seven Principles of Healthy Housing as a guideline for parents and caregivers to help them create healthier home environments. The seven principles include keeping homes dry, clean, ventilated, contaminant-free, pest-free, safe, and maintained. . . .

Principle 4: Contaminant-Free

Chemical exposures include lead, radon, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and environmental tobacco smoke. Exposures to asbestos particles, radon gas, carbon monoxide, and second-hand tobacco smoke are far higher indoors than outside. To keep the home free from contaminants, NCHH suggests:

* Avoid smoking inside.

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CASA* Report Finds Teens Who Have Infrequent Family Dinners Likelier to Drink, Smoke, Use Marijuana 

Compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five or more per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are twice as likely to use tobacco or marijuana; more than one and a half times likelier to use alcohol; and twice as likely to expect to try drugs in the future, according to The Importance of Family Dinners V, a new report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

The CASA report also found that compared to teens who have frequent family dinners, those who have infrequent family dinners are more than twice as likely to be able to get marijuana in an hour and one and a half times likelier to be able to get prescription drugs to get high within an hour.

The report reveals that compared to teens who have frequent family dinners without distractions at the table (talking or texting on a cell phone, using a Blackberry, laptop or Game Boy), those who have infrequent family dinners and say there are distractions at the table are three times likelier to use marijuana and tobacco, and two and a half times likelier to use alcohol.

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