ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 31 (UPI) -- A survey of U.S. homes with children revealed exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke declined in the 1990s across all racial, ethnic and income groups.
The survey of 15,000 households by University of Michigan researchers, showed the decrease was even greater than the general decline in smoking over the same period.
The presence of secondhand smoke decreased from 36 percent of homes with children in 1992 to 25 percent in 2000, the researchers said. By comparison, overall smoking decreased from 26.5 percent to 23.3 percent during the same time
The researchers also found the number of cigarettes smoked per day by a smoker was associated with a greater likelihood of children's exposure to secondhand smoke. The number of cigarettes smoked also accounted for much of the difference between whites, Hispanics, and African Americans.
Increased education also decreases in secondhand smoke, the researchers said. Households in which mothers attended or graduated from high school had rates of about 35 percent. But the rate was just 10 percent in families where the mother had graduated from college and lower still in homes where women had postgraduate degrees.
