Cigarette smoking is a form of child abuse, says one of the nation?s leading child abuse experts, and it?s high time we recognize it as such.
?More young children are killed by parental smoking than by all unintentional injuries combined,? says James Garbarino, an internationally recognized expert on child protection and the director of Cornell University?s Family Life Development Center. These deaths include almost 3,000 annually due to low birth weight, 2,000 due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and another 1,300 attributed to respiratory infection, asthma, and burns, according to researchers in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.