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Editorial

Parental Tobacco Counseling in the Well-Child Visit—A Method With Enhanced Effectiveness but Nowhere to Go

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2748379

Exposure to tobacco is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States and as such was noted in the recent US Surgeon General’s report, “The Health Consequences of Smoking: 50 Years of Progress”: “The epidemic of smoking-caused disease in the 20th century ranks among the greatest public health catastrophes of the century, while the decline of smoking consequent to tobacco control is surely one of public health’s greatest successes.”1(p33) As the documented consequences of passive tobacco exposure make clear, these observations are as relevant for the pediatric population of this country as they are for adults.