Prof Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said parents should take more responsibility, starting even before conception. Cot deaths are linked to mothers smoking while pregnant and evidence from America shows that more children are killed from the effects of parental smoking than by accidents, he said. Yet when the Royal College called for a ban on smoking in cars carrying young children, the idea was attacked as ... Jump to full article >>

A man has been jailed for 18 months for allowing a three-year-old child to smoke. Newcastle Crown Court heard that the girl asked Graeme Conroy, 31, for a cigarette and when she started smoking it she was filmed on a mobile phone. The court heard that the child had smoked three cigarettes before the filming took place. Conroy, from Ashington, Northumberland, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering or injury to health. Last month magistr ... Jump to full article >>