THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE
Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2006-06-14
Author: BENJAMIN BREWER, M.D.
Intro: It turned out the baby had a respiratory infection. I'm confident she got it mainly because her parents smoke.
I see a scene like this unfold nearly every day in the office or hospital. The parents are concerned about the child's illness and would like a quick fix for their feverish, fussy infant who is having difficulty breathing.
They just don't seem to see that their children's problems are inflicted by second-hand smoke exposure. Or they see it but don't want to deal with it.
Smoking around children isn't illegal of course, but I view it as a legal form of child abuse. . . .
I've had patients leave my practice because we've told them that they were harming their children's health and their own by smoking. (My staff is instructed to ask about smoking status at each office visit.) I feel bad for the kids, but I don't miss dealing with their stubborn parents.
The parents of the sick infant in the emergency department are committed smokers. Dad is sporting a case of chronic bronchitis and mom smoked a pack a day throughout her pregnancy. I tried to talk her out of it, but she didn't want to consider stopping.
She wanted to leave the hospital one day after her Cesarean section because the hospital has a smoke-free campus, but I wouldn't let her. . . .
We have emissions standards for automobiles but we don't have clean-air quality standards for the air that children breathe.
As much as I'd like to see it, I don't expect anyone to outlaw cigarettes or tax them out of existence anytime soon.
If we had the courage to do that, I'd be making fewer late-night trips to the emergency department and my littlest patients would be breathing easier.
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