Letters: Restricted cigarette sales good for kids' health

ISSUE | SMOKING

As a pediatrician who sees patients in North Philadelphia emergency departments, I support the efforts of the city board of health to reduce the accessibility of cigarettes in low-income neighborhoods ("Phila. board approves rules aimed at curbing tobacco sales," Sept. 9).

We see many children with asthma attacks and ear infections, two common problems related to exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke. If it is harder for their parents to buy cigarettes, they will smoke less, which will benefit their children's health. We know that making smoking less convenient results in less smoking.

In addition, teenagers are more likely to begin smoking when their parents smoke. And children who start smoking as teens are more likely to become addicted, lifelong smokers. Given the negative health effects of smoking - heart disease, cancer, and emphysema - pediatricians strongly advise teenage patients to never start smoking. It will be easier for our patients to heed our advice when cigarettes are less available in their neighborhoods and near their schools.

Poor children tend to have worse health outcomes than middle-class or affluent children. The higher prevalence of tobacco retailers in poor neighborhoods may contribute to these poor health outcomes by making smoking more convenient.

|Dr. Danielle Casher, associate medical director, Population Health and Value, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, danielle.casher@drexelmed.edu