• National Center on
  • Health
Skip Navigation
 
 
How Secondhand Smoke Affects You and Your Child!
 
The partnership between the Office of Head Start and the Indoor Environments Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aims to reduce young children's exposure to secondhand smoke and other asthma triggers. This tip sheet offers information to caregivers on the dangers of children's exposure to secondhand smoke. Head Start staff may use facts in this tip sheet to inform parents of what may happen if they expose their children to secondhand smoke.

How Secondhand Smoke Affects You and Your Child!

Man smoking near no-smoking sign

You may already know that secondhand smoke …

Boy using inhaler for asthmaCauses cancer in those who do not smoke.

Leads to increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe asthma.

Exposure during pregnancy causes low birth weight.

Exposure from parents or other caregivers causes respiratory illness in infants and children.

Causes premature death and disease in adults and children who do not smoke.

But did you know that…

Pregnant womanIn 2006 the Surgeon General estimated that exposure to secondhand smoke kills 430 newborns from SIDS each year.

The Surgeon General also states exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy or after birth may cause leukemia, lymphoma, and/or childhood brain tumors.

It is not just the pregnant woman who should not smoke! Smoking around a pregnant woman can cause her child to have low birth weight.

Despite efforts to reduce children's exposure to smoke, children still continue to show toxin levels nearly twice those of adult non-smokers.

Exposure to secondhand smoke actually slows down the growth of children’s lungs.

Providing separate smoking areas, extra ventilation or cleaning the air within an inside area does not eliminate your exposure. The only way to protect others from exposure to secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking in indoor spaces.

LungsNow that you know… what are you going to do?

How Secondhand Smoke Affects You and Your Child! DHHS/ACF/OHS. 2007. English.


Last Updated: June 4, 2009