12 May 2021 - 06:59 Public health experts warn that smoking not only has devastating health effects, but its economic impact is huge. Image: 123RF/Oleg Gavrilov
A leading child health specialist has described the exposure of children to second-hand cigarette smoke and other electronic nicotine delivery devices, such as e-cigarettes and vapers, as similar to squeezing life out of children and taking the breath out of their lungs.
Prof Anthony Westwood, a retired paediatrician from Red Cross Children’s Hospital and lecturer at the University of Cape Town s department of child and adolescent health, said exposing children to nicotine not only denied them a choice not to get addicted, but could also have devastating consequences to their developing brains.