Keep Your Home and Family Smoke-Free
Tips to keep your home and family smoke-free
When you smoke, your family smokes too. Children who grow up in smoky air have more chest colds, coughs, ear infections, and asthma than those who grow up in clean air. For the child, illness means more days out of school for the parent, it means money on child care or time off work, and more trips to the doctor with your child.
In your home
- Think of smoking as something you do for yourself, by yourself, when you need a break.
- Find a family-safe place to smoke: outside your front or back door, on the balcony, or deck if you have one.
- Find a good neighbour to watch your children while you take your cigarette break.
- Make sure the smoke is not drifting back inside through open windows or doorways.
- Get rid of all but one of your ashtrays and clean it out after each use. Cigarette butts are poisonous to children and pets.
- If there are other smokers in your home, tell them what you're doing and why, and don't let them sidetrack you. You are doing the right thing for your family.
In your car
- Make it a rule: no smoking when children or older people are in the car.
- Pull off at rest areas for a smoke and a break.
- Commuting? Have your smoke outside at home or outside at work.
- On a long trip, schedule stops for smokers.
- Lock your cigarettes in the trunk!
When visitors come
- Explain to your smoking friends why you don't smoke in your home or car. Most of your friends will thank you, and, because smokers care for their families as much as non-smokers do, they may even try the clean-air tips in their own homes.
- When friends do want to smoke, give them your ashtray and show them the family-safe area outside your home where you smoke. And as long as there is someone inside to watch your children, join your friends for a break.
Remember: Tobacco smoke is very harmful to unborn, newborn, and older children. Quitting smoking or smoking away from your children until you are ready to quit is the best thing you can do for your child, and for yourself.
How to get help to become tobacco free
There are many resources available in our community to become tobacco free.