Evaluation of awareness of passive cigarette smoking hazards on 4th and 5th graders

The smoke from the cigarette or other tobacco products and the exhaled smoke from the smoker is called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). ETS is the complex mixture of 4000 compounds. Forty of these are known or suspicious human carcinogen.The exposure to the tobacco smoke indoors is defined as passive smoking. The tobacco products threaten not only the smokers? also non smokers? health. Therefore, the children as the most vulnerable part of the society are affected at most. Children inhale, eat and drink more compared to adults regarding the body weight.From low birth weight to cancer many health risks are possible for the passive smoker infants and children. In what extent do children aware of the hazards of passive smoking and how to protect themselves? Considering this question we conducted questionnaire based study in Ankara. For our study 1025 students, among 4th and 5th graders have been chosen from different primary schools of the city randomly to evaluate the awareness of passive cigarette smoking hazards.Regard to our results; 47% of the students were girls and 53% were boys. The 19% of the students were from village, 39% were from out-of-center and 42% were from center schools. The 65% of the children were passive smokers. Although, among the students the awareness about; the description of passive tobacco smoking, the prevention strategies and the health risks of passive smoking were more than 75%, the small portion of unaware children was crucial for additional education and prevention strategies on passive smoking.