Health of others

Smoking not only harms your health but it hurts the health of those around you. Exposure to secondhand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke or passive smoking) includes exhaled smoke as well as smoke from burning cigarettes.

Studies have shown that secondhand smoke causes thousands of deaths each year from lung cancer in healthy non-smokers.

If a mother smokes, there is a higher risk of her baby developing asthma in childhood, especially if she smoked while she was pregnant. Women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have low-birth weight infants.

Babies and children raised in a household where there is smoking have more ear infections, colds, bronchitis, and problems with breathing than children in non-smoking families. Secondhand smoke is linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and slow lung growth in children. Secondhand smoke can also cause eye irritation, headaches, nausea, and dizziness.