How We Can Protect Our Children from Secondhand Smoke: A Parent's Guide

Secondhand smoke comes from lit cigarettes and cigars. It also comes from smoke breathed out by smokers. When children breathe secondhand smoke, it is like they are smoking, too. Secondhand smoke is made of thousands of chemicals. Many are poisons that stay in your body. What do these poisons do?

The U.S. Surgeon General asked scientists to find out. They found that secondhand smoke harms everyone, especially children. They also learned that

• An estimated 58 million nonsmoking Americans, including 14 million children aged 3-11 years, are exposed to secondhand smoke.
• They breathe it at home, day care, and in cars.
• Children are almost twice as likely as nonsmoking adults to be exposed to secondhand smoke.

Here are just a few of the chemicals and poisons in tobacco smoke.

Tobacco smoke harms babies, even before they are born. It harms children, too, because their lungs and bodies are still growing.

• Babies who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to die unexpectedly from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also called crib death.
• Babies and children who breathe secondhand smoke are sick more often with bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.
• For children with asthma, breathing secondhand smoke can trigger an attack. The attack can be severe enough to send a child to the hospital. Sometimes an asthma attack is so severe that a child dies.

Smoking in another room like a bathroom or bedroom pollutes all the air in your home. In an apartment, smoke in one room can go through the whole building.

• Smoking outside in a hall or stairwell does not protect children inside. Smoke goes under doors, windows, and through cracks.
• To protect the children inside, homes and apartment buildings must be smoke-free.