Making connections is a hot theme for subway ads: hot-pink relationship services, ethnically diverse university mentors, and multilingual ambulance chasers. Now the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is buying up subway ads in an effort to help Harlem residents make a critical connection—smoking at home may be making their children sick.

According to the Health Department, East and Central Harlem have some of the highest rates, if not the single highest documented rate, of asthma in the country. Children in Harlem are hospitalized for asthma at twice the rate of children citywide. Approximately one in four children in Central Harlem has asthma—about four times the national average.

Posted in Harlem stations along 125th Street in Spanish and English, the campaign’s ads feature pained faces of African-American and Latino children suffering from secondhand smoke-related illnesses such as asthma, ear infections, allergies, and chronic cough.

“When parents smoke at home, they put their children’s health at risk,” said Sarah Perl, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Tobacco Control.

Renee Goodwin, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, agreed, arguing that secondhand smoke is the key risk element for childhood asthma.

“Of available research on causal risk factors for childhood asthma, there is the most evidence suggesting that secondhand smoke causes asthma and related conditions in infants and children,” Goodwin said.

Other experts point to a convergence of factors as responsible for the severe rates in Harlem—a heavy concentration of diesel bus depots and many other factors associated with poverty, including dust mites, mold, and roaches.

Although New York City’s smoking rate reached a low in 2006, the problem is worse in some parts of Harlem. Last year, the East Harlem rate was nearly twice as high as the citywide rate (31 percent versus 17.5 percent), according to the Health Department.

The ads, which are already posted in stations on Lexington Avenue, will also appear at the Malcolm X Boulevard/Lenox Avenue stop and at the St. Nicholas Avenue stop. The ads will remain there until Dec. 15 and are part of a broader campaign that includes advertisements in check-cashing establishments and radio commercials.

“The advertisements seem relevant and could be quite informative, as many people do not know the effects of secondhand smoke ... whether and/or to what degree they will be effective depends heavily on what kind of resources are offered, and their accessibility and availability, to those who wish to quit smoking,” Goodwin said.

Even with informative advertisements and resources, what ultimately matters is that the message gets across to Harlem residents.

At 125th and Lexington, 26-year-old East Harlem resident Yolanda Perez stood by one of the signs with her three young children.

“Yeah, I’ve seen those,” Perez said. “I’ve heard about that. I don’t smoke, but if I did I wouldn’t ever smoke around my kids.”

But as Perez spoke, a man standing next to her jumped into the conversation. “I’ve seen those ... but I never read them before. That’s sad. So many people in my building smoke, with their kids right in the room.”

The Health Department says the campaign is offering additional services in addition to the advertisements—including nicotine patches at local clinics and home-visiting programs to distribute smoke-free home kits—to help people quit smoking.
Ashley Pandolfi can be reached at ashley.pandolfi@columbiaspectator.com.