During Week of the Young Child, our Burchfield Pre-K classroom was filled with creativity, collaboration, and joyful learning experiences! We kicked off the week with Music Monday, where students designed their own musical instruments using paper plates and dried...
Families enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start of Fayette County were invited to “The Garden Party” held at the Lemont Furnace Head Start Center on April 15, 2026. The theme of the event was to focus on skills from the program’s School Readiness Goals. We also...
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month and our afterschool students at Nicely Elementary learned about good oral hygiene and developing good dental habits to promote healthy teeth and gums.
The Private Industry Council (PIC) was pleased to serve as a valued partner to the Western PA Operating Engineers, beginning with preparation coursework on January 10th & 17th, 2026 and concluding with testing held from January 21st - 27th. Operating engineers are...
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Head Start / Early Head Start FAQs The Private Industry Council discusses frequently asked questions for Head Start and Early Head Start students. Private Industry Council operates the Head Start / Early Head Start program for Beaver and Fayette Counties in the...
Second and third hand smoke can affect children from as early as the point of conception and can have lasting, if not deadly, effects on them. Second hand smoke is the exposure to smoke coming from a tobacco product or being exhaled by a smoker. The smoke contains a mixture of more than 7,000 chemicals (such as arsenic, lead and carbon monoxide) and about 70 carcinogens (such as benzene and chromium). Second hand smoke causes premature death, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), low birth weight, ear infections, respiratory infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) and strengthening asthma attacks in children and infants.
Third hand smoke is just as dangerous as second hand smoke. Smoking leaves a residue on hair, skin, clothing and furniture. Children are exposed to the residue by touching items and ingesting the nicotine. Touching the residue can also cause the nicotine to recombine and form carcinogens in the atmosphere. Significant amounts of toxic by-products can be emitted for weeks after the smoking ends. Third hand smoke cannot be eliminated by opening windows, airing out rooms or vacuuming.
The only way to truly get rid of second and third hand smoke is to eliminate smoking all together.
To help battle this epidemic, Head Start/Early Head Start of Fayette County, a program of the Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette, Inc, started an initiative in 2017 to educate families and provide them with the resources to stop smoking. Educational materials on the effects of second and third hand smoke are presented to families yearly. Head Start also partners with Fayette County Drug and Alcohol to provide smoking cessation classes to adults as well as anti-smoking presentations to the children. Families also complete a short survey yearly to track the effectiveness of the materials provided.
In the 2018-2019 Head Start program year:
If you or someone you care about wants to quit smoking, you can start today by using some of these tools:
Sources:
Campaign for tobacco-free kids- https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/
Smokefree.gov- https://smokefree.gov/
Health Central- https://www.healthcentral.com/article/the-dangers-of-third-hand-smoke
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