Objective: Passive exposure to cigarette smoke is an important public health problem and is considered to be one of the most important external factors negatively affecting the health of infants and children. Cars are an important environment for exposure to cigarette smoke. This study aimed to determine passive smoking with cigarette smoke in private cars in children of smoker and non-smoker families.

Material and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on parents who had children at the Antalya Atatürk Governmental Hospital (n = 524). The sample of the study consisted of 113 parents, whose children were 0-11 years of age, who voluntarily participated in the study and who had a private car. In the collection of the research data, the literature on the subject was searched and a form consisting of the descriptive characteristics of the families and questions related to the research topic was developed by the researchers.

Results: Smoking frequency was found to be 31.0% for the mothers and 45.1% for the fathers. Most families (72.6%) declared that they did not give permission to smoke in the car when the children were present. According to their declaration, the percentage of smoker mothers who smoked in the car was 31.4 % and the percentage for the fathers was also 31.4%. The smoking mothers gave permission to other people to smoke in the car at higher rates than the smoker fathers (54.3% and 19.6%) (p<0.005). The less educated mothers and fathers smoked more in cars than the higher educated ones (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Smoking mothers and fathers also smoked in the car and other people in the car were also more likely to smoke (p<0.005). The awareness of the families, especially smoker families, on exposure to tobacco smoke in cars with children should be increased. The families should develop rules banning smoking for themselves and the other adults traveling in their car with and without children

Keywords: Family, Child, İndoor exposure, Passive smoking