Smokefree Homes Campaign

Smokefree South West has launched its exciting smokefree homes multi-media campaign “Protect your family, take the smoke outside” .

Worrying new research shows that more people are smoking in the home or allowing others to do so with the figure currently standing at over 1 million people (22%) in the South West (YouGov 2011) compared to 20% in 2010. Smokefree South West’s multi-media campaign aims to halve this number by the year 2015.   It focuses on the danger of second-hand and what’s known as third-hand smoke – where poisonous chemicals can linger on household items such as sofas and carpets, long after the smoke has gone posing a real risk, particularly to small children.

 Third-hand smoke refers to the tobacco toxins that build up over time. The third-hand smoke is the particles that remain after visible or second-hand smoke has dissipated from the air and cling to fabrics, toys and furniture to be released back into the air months after a cigarette has been lit.

 The developing brain is uniquely susceptible to extremely low levels of toxins. Babies and children are closer to surfaces such as floors. They tend to touch or even mouth (put their mouths to) the contaminated surfaces. Children ingest twice the amount of dust that grown-ups do.

The campaign is being supported by partners from local authority based family information services, fire services across the South West, Mothercare, National Family Week and Cancer Research. It will launch on TV, radio and online on Monday 23 May with specialist material being provided to help smokers looking to make their homes smokefree.