Fontem foresees smoke-free homes

As June 2016 marks the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s First Annual National Healthy Homes Month, Fontem Ventures is highlighting the role of Electronic Vapor Products (EVPs) in advancing one of the month’s key goals: making homes free of tobacco smoke. EVPs provide the nicotine that smokers desire without the tar, smoke, or secondhand smoke generated by cigarettes that burn tobacco.

As noted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke are real – secondhand smoke kills more than 400 infants from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and about 41,000 nonsmoking adults from heart disease and lung cancer each year.” The CDC also notes that about 58 million nonsmokers in the U.S. are exposed to secondhand smoke, some of which occurs in homes.

Public health experts have concluded that EVPs pose no risk to bystanders. [See: BioMed Central (2014); International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2014); Nicotine and Tobacco Research (2013)]

“As many experts have agreed, EVPs provide the potential to make a significant public health benefit by providing smokers with an alternative that some studies have found to be up to 95 percent less harmful than products that burn tobacco,” said Marc Michelsen, Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at Fontem Ventures.

“When a smoker transitions from cigarettes to EVPs, they also help families and others in their home avoid the secondhand byproducts produced by cigarettes that burn tobacco,” Michelsen continued. “This advances HUD’s goal of promoting healthy homes.”

The National Healthy Homes Month program was developed to provide HUD with an opportunity to promote education about housing and its impact on health and provide resources to encourage local activities, as well as empower families to protect themselves from hazards in their home. The seven priorities of National Healthy Homes Month are childhood lead poisoning prevention, residential asthma intervention, injury prevention, smoke free public housing, safe indoor pest control, radon safety, and disaster recovery.