More Texas Homes Go Smoke-Free

More households in Texas are smoke-free now than two decades ago, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 1991, 46 percent of all households in Texas were smoke-free. Homes with at least one adult smoker were only 11 percent smoke-free and homes without any smokers were 60 percent smoke-free. In 2010, 85 percent of all Texas households were smoke-free, including 52 percent of households with a smoker and 93 percent of households without a smoker.

CDC lists smoke-free laws for public places and work spaces, an overall decrease in smoking rates, and a social stigma against smoking around nonsmokers as likely reasons for this decline.

The home is the primary source of secondhand smoke exposure in children. In 2006 the U.S. Surgeon General reported secondhand smoke is never safe. More than 7,000 chemicals are found in secondhand smoke, hundreds of which are toxic and about 70 of which cause cancer. Secondhand smoke kills an estimated 41,000 nonsmoking American adults each year, and causes 150,000-300,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in children annually. Since 1964, 2.5 million nonsmokers have died from exposure to secondhand smoke.

Read the NPR story on the report.