PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Mira Osinibi AU - Atul Gupta AU - Katherine Harman AU - Cara J. Bossley AU - Cara J. Bossley TI - Increased exposure to tobacco smoke for children during the COVID-19 era AID - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.OA2579 DP - 2021 Sep 05 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - OA2579 VI - 58 IP - suppl 65 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/OA2579.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/OA2579.full SO - Eur Respir J2021 Sep 05; 58 AB - Background: Passive smoke exposure is harmful to children, it is especially harmful to children with respiratory diseases. Closure of schools due to COVID-19 has caused children to spend more time at home, thus increasing their exposure to passive smoke. We sought to investigate how smoking habits changed in the COVID-19 era.Methods: We performed a telephone questionnaire of parents of children who attend our general respiratory paediatric clinic, who were known to have smoked in the past. These parents had all taken part in a smoking cessation session with a paediatric clinical nurse specialist & previously had levels of carbon monoxide measured, in an attempt to get them to reduce their smoking. We asked how much they smoked before & after lockdown & how hard they found lockdown.Results: Of the 50 parents we performed the questionnaire 44/50(88%) smoked pre-lockdown, 6/50 (12%) were vaping only, as they had managed to stop smoking. In 13/50(26%) there was an additional smoker in the house & the families had an average of 2.5(1-8) children. Three of the parents who smoked had children who were shielding. Following lockdown 40/50(80%) continued smoking & 4/44(9%) gave up. 16/50(32%) smoked more, 17/50(34%) smoked less & 17/50(34%) smoked the same amount than prior to lockdown. Smokers reported a median score of 7/10 on the scale of hardship/anxiety during lockdown.Conclusions: Two thirds of parents who smoked prior to lockdown were smoking the same amount or more following the lockdown. This caused a significant proportion of children with respiratory conditions to be exposed to an increased amount of harmful cigarette smoke, as they spent more time at home, due to homeschooling & advice to stay indoors.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, OA2579.This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).