Children ages 3 to 6 at Schrader Lane Childcare Center, learned this song to the tune of "Three Blind Mice."

"I won't smoke. I won't smoke; When I grow up I won't smoke; It'll make you choke (cough). It'll make you choke (cough); When I grow up I won't smoke."

The kids loved it - especially singing out the coughing part.

Blockmon said she soon began to hear from parents who wanted to quit or learn more about the effects of secondhand smoke on children.

"When we hear children say things that we know we didn't teach them, we stop and listen," she said. "We ask them, where did you hear that? That opens the door to talk about smoking."

A June report by the U.S. surgeon general concluded that secondhand smoke causes serious problems for nonsmokers, raising their risks of heart disease and lung cancer. More than one in five children breathes their parents' smoke, making them more vulnerable to sudden infant death syndrome, bronchitis, pneumonia, worsening asthma attacks, poor lung growth and ear infections, the report found.

Blockmon, who smoked for 17 years, said her own children suffered from chronic asthma and severe bronchial infections. She finally quit five years ago.

"I think people really don't understand the effect smoking has on their children," said Dr. Kelsey Hamilton, a Nashville pediatrician.

"I see children keep coming back and they reek of smoke, but the parents can't understand why the kid can't shake an infection. They want us to give them medicine to stop the infection, but it's their smoking that impairs the child's ability to fight the infection off," Hamilton said.

Blockmon said the children can reach their parents in a way other adults can't.

"The children are powerful change agents," Blockmon said. "Children have no agenda and that gets adults' attention."

Back Pain?

You can hurt your back doing simple everyday things -- lifting objects, twisting the wrong way, sleeping in an unusual position, or by sneezing.

Your doctor may prescribe an anti-inflammatory medication to reduce inflammation and pain, according to the Northeast Medical Center in North Carolina. Muscle relaxants and stronger pain medicines may also be prescribed as needed.

Contrary to what was once popular belief, light-to-moderate activity is recommended over prolonged bedrest. While you should avoid heavy lifting or any activity that may aggravate or strain your injury, the center says moderate activity actually may help speed recovery.

Opiate Painkiller ODs Now Top Those for Cocaine, Heroin

  MONDAY, July 24 (HealthDay News) -- Opioid prescription painkillers cause more drug overdose deaths in the United States than either cocaine or heroin, a new U.S. study finds. Opioid painkillers include oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, morphine and fentanyl. U.S. sales of these painkillers have increased over the past 15 years, and there's been a parallel increase in the number of deaths from the drugs, say researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2002, drug overdoses killed more than 16,000 people in the United States. Between 1999 and 2002, opioids surpassed both cocaine and heroin as a cause of overdoses. The study, published in this week's issue of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, found that total unintentional overdose deaths increased 5.3 percent each year between 1979 and 1990, and by 18.1 percent per year between 1990 and 2002.

Between 1999 and 2002, the number of overdose deaths linked to opioids increased by 91.2 percent, the researchers said, compared to 22.8 percent for cocaine and 12.4 percent for heroin. The findings should not cause unwarranted fear among doctors or patients about using opioids for controlling patients' pain, stressed the authors of an accompanying commentary.

Opioid abuse is most common among recreational and street drug users and people with psychiatric conditions, rather than pain patients, explained David Joranson and Aaron Gilson of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Comprehensive Cancer Center, Pain & Policy Studies Group.

They noted that large quantities of opioid painkillers are stolen from pharmacies every year and that, "overdose deaths involving prescription medications does not necessarily mean they were prescribed. It is also crucial to know that most overdose deaths involve several drugs and these data cannot attribute the cause to a particular drug."