The pediatrician's role in reducing tobacco exposure in children.

OBJECTIVE Pediatricians have a unique and important role to play in the prevention and treatment of childhood and adolescent tobacco use, the protection of patients from the harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke, and the encouragement of smoking cessation among parents. However, because recent research indicates that physician training in tobacco dependence is woefully weak and lacks a model for training, this article constructs a useful approach to this problem. METHODOLOGY A comprehensive review of the literature served as the basis for the development of a new model for pediatrician training in tobacco dependence. RESULTS A comprehensive model is presented for training pediatricians in the areas of reducing infant and child exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, preventing youth smoking initiation, and providing smoking cessation assistance for adolescents and parents. CONCLUSIONS Pediatricians have been called on to play an active role in the antitobacco arena. Because of their unique opportunity to interact with children, adolescents, and parents, pediatricians can and should be antitobacco interventionists. For this to occur, however, additional guidance should be provided to pediatricians during their training to better prepare them to carry out effective assessment and intervention practices. smoking initiation, smoking prevention, smoking cessation, environmental tobacco smoke, pediatricians.