Kids notice when parents ask for nonsmoking seat

Simply asking to be seated in nonsmoking sections appears to help parents who smoke reduce the chances that their children will follow in their footsteps.

In tracking 3,555 Washington state teens from their junior to senior years in high school, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle found that about 27% of teenagers whose smoking parents requested nonsmoking seats went on to become daily smokers. That compared with 42% of teenagers whose smoking parents didn’t ask to be seated away from cigarette smokers.

The researchers, led by M. Robyn Anderson, an associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, found that moms and dads could also deter smoking among their children by banning smoking at home and asking others not to smoke in front of them.

But the most powerful action was requesting seating in nonsmoking sections, Anderson said.

“What was surprising and was cool about the whole thing is that it was so effective for the families where there was a parent who smoked,” she said. “It may be that waiting for a nonsmoking seat backs up their words with an action, even if they can’t quit.”

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and Northern Life Insurance Co. of Minneapolis, appears in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

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-- Jane E. Allen