Kids, Asthma, Smoking

Does your child have ear infections, colds, or asthma attacks?
If you smoke, your child may be getting sick from the cigarette smoke.

HOW SECONDHAND SMOKE HURTS YOUR CHILD

Secondhand smoke is the smoke from a lit cigarette, cigar or pipe. Secondhand smoke sticks to your hair, skin, and clothes, even the walls and furniture in your home. Secondhand smoke causes many health problems. It makes other health problems, like asthma, worse.

When kids breathe secondhand smoke, they:

  • Get sick more often and for more days

  • Have more coughs, colds and ear infections

  • May have allergies and asthma attacks

  • May have heart problems or lung cancer when they grow up

How to Keep Your Child Away from Secondhand Smoke.

  • Do not smoke in your home or car

  • Ask family and friends not to smoke in your home or car

  • Ask smokers who visit your home to smoke outside

  • Ask your child care and babysitters not to smoke around your child

  • Change your clothes and take a shower when you come home
    from working in a place that allows smoking.

SECONDHAND SMOKE DOES DAMAGE TO YOUR FAMILY

A recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology proved even 30 minutes of exposure to average levels of secondhand smoke is enough to injure blood vessels in young, healthy non-smokers. In addition, secondhand smoke hinders the body's natural ability to repair the injured blood vessels. The chemicals in secondhand smoke have strong and persistent consequences on the body's vascular system.

CONSIDER THESE FACTS

  • Each year in the United States, an estimated 49,000 deaths are attributable to secondhand smoke breathed by nonsmokers, making it the third leading cause of preventable death.

  • In Indiana alone secondhand smoke kills 1,100 Hoosiers every year and is responsible for over 900 low birth weight babies born each year.

  • Infants and children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in their home have dramatically higher levels of respiratory tract infections and slower lung development. 

  • Many families and children remain at high risk for tobacco use and suffer disproportionately from tobacco-related illness and death.

  • There is no safe level of smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.