Face the Facts of Smoking Not only does smoking cause lung
cancer and heart disease, but many of the 4,000 chemicals in
cigarettes increase your risk of stroke, breast cancer,
secondary infertility, low back pain, and heartburn (and then
there are the premature wrinkles and bad breath). If you think
you're healthy, ask your doctor to do a spirometry test that
measures your lungs' functional age. Many 35-year-old smokers
have the lungs of a 70-year-old. Inhaling secondhand smoke --
which contains arsenic, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde -- is
undeniably risky for children. Smokers' kids have higher rates
of respiratory infection, ear infection, severe asthma, and even
SIDS. "Despite what you may think, there is no safe level of
exposure for secondhand smoke," says Richard D. Hurt, MD,
director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center, in
Rochester, Minnesota. Even if you never smoke in rooms where
your children play, tiny particles cling to your clothes and
circulate through your house. And while no par