Smoking kills 420,000 Americans each year, more than alcohol, illegal drugs, homicide, suicide, car accidents, fires and AIDS combined. Cigarettes are the only legal product which, when used as intended, kills. The smoker, and anyone else nearby, inhales these chemicals. Nonsmoking sections do not eliminate nonsmokers' exposure to secondhand smoke, the smoke knows no boundaries. Secondhand smoke joins a list which includes substances such as radon and asbestos.
Children are particularly sensitive to the harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke.
Children who are exposed to ETS have higher rates of illness than children who are not exposed. When a pregnant woman is exposed to secondhand smoke, her unborn baby is also exposed. Babies of mothers exposed to secondhand smoke have nicotine in their hair at birth. Smoke-filled rooms can have up to 6 times the air pollution as a busy highway. The tobacco industry is targeting youth, women and minorities to replace the 3,500 smokers that quit and the 1,200 smokers who die each day.