Throwing out the cigarettes before a child reaches the third grade may reduce the chances that he or she will become a smoker, according to a study published in the journal Addiction.
If one parent quits before the child is 8 or 9, the child's odds of being a regular smoker decrease by 25 percent. If both parents quit, the odds go down by 40 percent, according to the study. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle estimate that if all smokers quit by the time their children turn 8, as many as 136,000 teenagers in the United States could be prevented from becoming daily smokers. Reseachers hope the findings motivate parents to quit smoking for their children's sake.
The study collected data on the smoking habits of parents with children in the third grade, then followed up with the kids in 12th grade to see if they smoked.
