The Department has made no assessment of whether general practitioners and paediatricians, when presented with child patients with respiratory conditions, routinely ask the parents of the child whether they smoke around their children.

We know that exposure to second-hand smoke has an adverse impact on children's respiratory health through a number of conditions. For example, it increases the risk of lower respiratory infections in children, increases the risk of wheezing at all ages and also increases the risk of asthma. The vast majority of that exposure takes place in the home and family cars.

We would, therefore, expect all health care professionals coming in to contact with children presenting with respiratory illness to have appropriate discussions with their parents about the major risk factors, including parental smoking.

A national marketing campaign, including television, radio, magazines and digital media, to encourage smokers not to smoke in their homes and cars was launched on 31 March.