The Smoke-free Homes Innovation Network (SHINE)

Background and context: There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke (also known as passive smoking), which causes increased health risks for babies and children, including more severe asthma attacks, chest and ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome. In the UK, second-hand smoke exposure costs the NHS about £23 million each year, causing over 300, 000 GP consultations and nearly 10,000 hospital admissions. Children who grow up homes where smoking takes place are more likely than other children to experience delays in development, require time off school because of illness, and become smokers themselves. Nearly 20 years since smoke-free public places were introduced in the UK and Ireland, most exposure to second-hand smoke now takes place in homes, in poorer areas. In Scotland, for example, 15% of children living in poorer areas are exposed to second-hand smoke, compared to 1% of children living in wealthier areas. There is no recommended approach to tackle this challenge. Parents want to protect their children's health, but housing constraints (i.e. living in a 3rd floor flat), having friends and family who smoke, sole-parenting and lack of access to safe outdoor space are just some of the wider challenges that make this more difficult. Smoking can be seen as a way of coping with poverty and hardship (though in reality it often adds to financial stress). Creative approaches are required to better support families living in poorer areas, which take better account of the additional challenges they face in trying to create a smoke-free home. Aim: The SHINE network aims to increase our knowledge and understanding of the reasons why people in Ireland and the UK continue to smoke in the home. How we will go about this: The SHINE network will bring together researchers, policy makers, organisations and parents, providing a unique opportunity to develop plans for future research that are relevant and meaningful to families living in poorer areas. We will come together through a series of online meetings and workshops, sharing knowledge, experience and ideas. We will begin to develop future work that takes into account the barriers caused by education, housing and wider life circumstances that can make it particularly difficult for families to create a smoke-free home.We will hold several discussions with parents in the UK and in Ireland to find out more about the reasons why, when and where people smoke in the home, and the types of support that would help them to change their home smoking behaviours. These findings will feed back into network discussions, to make sure that our ideas for future work are relevant to families living in poorer areas of the UK and Ireland. From the beginning, we will develop ways to keep SHINE running after the 12 months of funding has finished, so that we can keep working to find ways to better support parents who want to protect their family from second-hand smoke and create a smoke-free family home. The information the network will provide: The network will develop ideas for new, creative approaches to tackling the challenge of reducing the number of people who smoke in the home in the UK and ROI. Including families in discussions will ensure that ideas for future research, policy and practice are tailored to the needs of people living in poorer areas. SHINE will provide new scientific understanding of how best to support families to create a smoke-free home. We hope that many of the networks findings will be of relevant to professionals working in other countries around the world, where second-hand smoke exposure levels remain high. We will share our findings widely through presentations to various audiences, attendance at conferences, a lay summary of findings, through SHINE webpages we will develop, and through social media, to make sure they have wide reach and impact.