Parents abuse children by smoking, group says
The Globe and Mail, By André Picard, PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER, Tuesday, January 21, 2003, Page A8
Exposing children to second-hand smoke is tantamount to child abuse, the Canadian Lung Association says.
In a controversial statement released yesterday to mark Non-Smoking Week, the venerable charitable organization called on parents to stop smoking in the home because they are endangering the health of their children.
"Children who are exposed to second-hand smoke are victims in their own homes -- the very environment that is supposed to be safe and protective," said Noel Kerin, an occupational and environmental medicine specialist and medical spokesman for the lung association.
"Second-hand smoke is damaging to a child's health and is tantamount to child abuse. The evidence is too compelling to present it in half measures or to worry about political correctness. We have a significant social and health problem that needs public attention and the associated pressure of public intolerance to correct it."
Dr. Kerin said that a child whose mother smokes half a pack of cigarettes daily has double the risk of developing asthma. A child who has asthma who lives in a home where someone smokes will have three times as many asthma attacks, which can require hospitalization and even cause death.
Exposure to tobacco smoke increases children's risk not only of asthma, but of respiratory tract infections, ear infections and sudden infant death syndrome. Children who live with smokers are also more likely to become regular smokers.
"An adult in that situation can choose not to be abused -- they can leave -- but a child cannot. These children have to be protected," Dr. Kerin said.
He refused to say, however, what sanctions should be applied to parents who smoke in the home, saying that is not the lung association's area of expertise.
Nico Trocmé, director of the Centre for Excellence for Child Welfare at the University of Toronto and one of Canada's foremost experts on child abuse, said there are "certainly some circumstances where smoking in the home could be considered to be child abuse" but, in general, child-welfare authorities would not view it in that way.
He cited the example of a parent who smoked a lot in front of an asthmatic child, triggering asthma attacks. "In that case, yes, I would say report it to child-welfare authorities," Dr. Trocmé said.
"That's abusive and state intervention is required. But between that and saying all smoking in the home where there is a child is abuse is quite a distance."
Peter Dudding, executive director of the Child Welfare League of Canada, agreed, saying: "Currently, smoking is not grounds that would warrant removal of a child from the home, but that's not to say it shouldn't be. There's a shifting level of knowledge and tolerance in our society about smoking."
He said he hoped the lung association's provocative stand would help get the health message out.
There are 2.4 million Canadian households with children under the age of 12. According to Health Canada's Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, children in about 25 per cent of those homes are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke.
The lung association is not the first group to label smoking near children as a form of abuse.
In 1997, James Garbarino, an internationally recognized expert on child protection, caused a furor when he made a similar declaration.
And in 2000, researchers at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit declared that physicians have a duty to encourage parents to quit smoking and to report the abuse to child-welfare authorities if they do not.
Why boys are in trouble
Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong
The Associated Press
January 5, 1999
According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'
When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.
The Boy Crisis Book
The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It
Authors- Waren Farrell PhD and John Gray PhD
What is the boy crisis?
It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science.
It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.
It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison.
It's a crisis of purpose. Boys' old sense of purpose-being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner-are fading. Many bright boys are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification.
So, what is The Boy Crisis? A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect. Read More ..
Health Canada Publication
The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens
"... the existence of a double standard in the care and treatment of male victims, and the invisibility and normalization of violence and abuse toward boys and young men in our society.
Despite the fact that over 300 books and articles on male victims have been published in the last 25 to 30 years, boys and teen males remain on the periphery of the discourse on child abuse.
Few workshops about males can be found at most child abuse conferences and there are no specialized training programs for clinicians. Male-centred assessment is all but non-existent and treatment programs are rare. If we are talking about adult males, the problem is even greater. A sad example of this was witnessed recently in Toronto. After a broadcast of The Boys of St. Vincent, a film about the abuse of boys in a church-run orphanage, the Kids' Help Phone received over 1,000 calls from distraught adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It is tragic in a way no words can capture that these men had no place to turn to other than a children's crisis line."
American Psychological Association
Dating Violence Statistics in the United States
Nearly one in 10 girls and one in 20 boys say they have been raped or experienced some other form of abusive violence on a date, according to a study released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
The mean T-shirt: From the Stupid Factory
Todd Goldman says his popular boy-bashing T-shirts are simply funny.
So why are retailers having second thoughts? Read More ..
Why boys are in trouble
Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong
The Associated Press
According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'
When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.