Even if you don't smoke, breathing in someone else's smoke can
be deadly too. Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths from
lung cancer and tens of thousands of deaths from heart disease
to nonsmoking adults in the United States each year. Millions of
children are breathing in secondhand smoke in their own homes.
Secondhand smoke can be especially harmful to your children's
health because their lungs still are developing. If you smoke
around your children or they are exposed to secondhand smoke in
other places, they may be in more danger than you realize.
Children whose parents smoke only outside are still exposed to
the chemicals in secondhand smoke. The best way to eliminate
this exposure is to quit. About Secondhand Smoke Secondhand
smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is the smoke a
smoker breathes out and that comes from the tip of burning
cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. It contains about 4,000
chemicals. Many of these chemicals are dangerous; more than 50
are known to cause cancer. Anytime