The American Legacy Foundation announced today in a new report, Secondhand Smoke Tearing Families Apart, that children bear a significant health burden from exposure to secondhand smoke. Despite increased awareness about the dangers of smoking in recent years, 46 million adult Americans still smoke. This widespread use of tobacco is not only having expected long-term effects on the health of smokers but also more immediate effects on America's children. ...

The rules parents set about adult smoking in the house may influence their teenagers' decision to try smoking, suggest the results of a study. Current smoking prevention efforts tend to focus on peer influences on smoking behavior, sometimes neglecting parental influences, according to lead author Rae Jean Proescholdbell of Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. ...

Activists burned up over trend among nation's teens. The agencies that monitor tobacco abuse among minors think stogies are big deal. Clearly, it is a violation of California law to sell tobacco products to minors, and for minors to possess them. ...

Adolescents may be more vulnerable to drug, alcohol and tobacco addiction, not just because of social factors, but also due to the way their growing brains are wired. That is the conclusion of an article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry that reviews 140 studies of addiction, adolescence and brain structure in humans and animals. The article says the organization of the adolescent brain -- which lends itself to highly motivated exploration of the world, in order to learn how to be an adult -- may also make it particularly vulnerable to addiction. ...

Watching a favorite movie star smoke appears to encourage teen girls to adopt the habit themselves, according to new findings released Tuesday. Investigators found that girls who said their favorite celebrity was someone who had smoked in at least two recent movies were almost twice as likely to start smoking within the next three years as girls whose favorite stars did not smoke in films. ...

Now that Ozzy Ozborne's domestic life now has more appeal than his music, could sex and drugs -- if not rock and roll -- be losing favor with American adolescents? Maybe so, according to a new government survey showing that being a teen isn't quite such risky business as it used to be. ...

Some children may be at a greater risk than others of developing asthma from second-hand smoke because of their genes, say scientists. A study of 3,000 German schoolchildren revealed that those with a deficiency in enzymes known as glutathione S transferases (GSTs) were more likely to have asthma symptoms when exposed to second-hand smoke than those without this genetic characteristic. ...

Men who have difficulty fathering children reduce their chances of success by two thirds if they smoke, according to a new study. The research found that non-smokers are three times more likely than smokers to conceive if they resort to artificial techniques like in vitro fertilisation or ICSI. ...

An anti-smoking group is appalled over revelations that Whangarei children are allowed to smoke cigarettes during breaks from alternative education classes. Whangarei has five alternative education providers with places for 62 students aged between 13 and 15 who have been alienated from mainstream schools, Whangarei Alternative Education co-ordinator Isopo Samu said. ...

Anti-smoking groups have welcomed a new Government advertising campaign that urges parents to stop smoking near their children. The adverts show children breathing tobacco smoke Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, unveiled plans for the series of television adverts with his second annual health report in London. ...