CVS Health continues efforts to reduce children's secondhand smoke exposure

CVS Health Foundation continues its efforts to reduce exposure to tobacco and secondhand smoke with its recent grant to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). 

The grant is intended to improve pediatric health providers' counseling methods and provide tools and other protocols.

"Most parents who smoke know that secondhand smoke is harmful to children and other nonsmokers,"  AAP CEO and Executive Director Dr. Karen Remley said. "The American Academy of Pediatrics is committed to equipping pediatricians with the tools they need to educate parents and help families reduce children's exposure to second hand smoke across the country. This grant through the CVS Health Foundation will help us bring our evidence-based guidance to more physicians in high-impact training sessions."

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that secondhand smoke affects nearly 41 percent of U.S. children between the ages of 3 and 11. The $110,000 grant from CVS Health will cover the costs of two in-person training sessions for pediatricians and other pediatric health care providers. The participants will learn easy and effective methods of counseling parents and caregivers on quitting smoking and eliminating children's tobacco and secondhand smoke exposure.

"With an alarming number of children still being exposed to secondhand smoke every day, working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to help educate physicians and parents and help curb exposure is an important step in our efforts to help deliver the first tobacco-free generation," CVS Health Foundation President Eileen Howard Boone said. "We're honored to be working with this respected organization that has demonstrated success in helping to increase education and awareness around the dangers of secondhand smoke."