Every year, secondhand smoke kills an estimated 51,500 adult nonsmokers from lung cancer and heart disease.

Secondhand smoke is a mix of the smoke given off by the burning ends of cigarettes, cigars and pipes and the smoke exhaled by someone who is smoking. If you’re around someone who is smoking, you are at risk. Exposure greatly increases your chance of developing lung cancer and heart disease.

Because their bodies are still growing, infants and young children are especially susceptible to secondhand smoke. Children are also at an increased risk of developing bronchitis and pneumonia when exposed to secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke:

• Causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory infections in infants and children under 18 months of age annually.
• Is responsible for 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the U.S. annually.
• Exposure can cause buildup of fluid in the middle year, resulting in 790,000 doctor office visits per year.
• Can aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1 million children with asthma.

Both babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant and babies who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth, are more likely to die from SIDS than babies who are not exposed at all.

Make Your Home Smoke-Free

If you are a smoker, you can make your home smoke-free by smoking outside. Blowing smoke away from children, going into another room to smoke, turning on a fan, or opening a window will not protect your family from the dangers of secondhand smoke.

The greatest benefit of a smoke-free home is that you will remove all of the health risks caused by secondhand smoke. Plus, when your home is smoke-free it will smell much better. Your food will taste better.

You’ll spend less time, energy and money cleaning your curtains, walls, windows and mirrors. Even your pets will be happier. (Secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in dogs, too.)

It may feel awkward to ask people not to smoke in your home. No one wants to make his or her guests uncomfortable. Tell them that for the sake of your family’s health, you simply don’t allow smoking in your home. Make sure your child’s school and day care programs are smoke-free. And insist that babysitters do not smoke around your children.

The Smoke-Free Workplace

Smoke-free policies are the only way to make sure that secondhand smoke exposure does not happen in the workplace. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.

There are many business benefits to having a smoke-free workplace policy.

Life, health and fire insurance premiums may be lower if smoking is not allowed. Companies will realize other cost savings, too, because computer equipment, furniture and carpets last longer and need less repairs and cleaning in a smoke-free environment.

Every smoker costs his or her company almost $3,500 each year in lost productivity and increased health care costs.

A well-planned smoke-free policy sends the message that the company is concerned about the health and well-being of its employees. In fact, non-smokers who breathe secondhand smoke at work are 17% more likely to get lung cancer than those who are not exposed.

On a national scope, the savings are huge as well. If all workplaces were to implement 100% smoke-free policies, the reduction in heart attack rates due to exposure to secondhand smoke would save the U.S. $49 million in direct medical savings within the first year alone.

Sources: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Surgeon General’s Reports, American Lung Association, and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

Updated: 3/10/08