Economic impact of living with a smoker
Children who live in households where they are exposed to tobacco smoke miss more days of school than do children living in smoke-free homes, a new nationwide study confirms. The report from investigators at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) — which finds these children have higher rates of respiratory illnesses that can be caused by secondhand smoke and details the probable economic costs of their increased school absence — has been released in the online edition of Pediatrics. “Among children ages 6 to 11 who live with smokers, one-quarter to one-third of school absences are due to household smoking,” says Douglas Levy of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at MGH, the paper’s lead author. ”On a national basis these absences result in $227 million in lost wages and time for caregivers or their employers.” The authors note that one-third of U.S. children live with at least one smoker, and more than...