Smokers also tend to get colds and other respiratory tract infections more often than nonsmokers. Tobacco smoke is dangerous to nonsmokers. Exposure to the smoke, also called passive smoking, increases the risks of nonsmokers getting the same problems as smokers. A nonsmoker in a very smoky room for 1 hour with several smokers inhales as many bad chemicals as he would inhale by actually smoking 10 or more cigarettes himself. One study found that the rate of lung cancer among nonsmoking women depended on the amount their husbands smoked.
Smoking affects pregnant women and their unborn children.
Smoking mothers have a greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Children born to women who smoke have lower birth weights on average. They also have more frequent respiratory infections, a higher risk of chronic ear infections and asthma, and less efficient lung function. Children of smokers usually become cigarette smokers themselves. The more cigarettes a person smokes each day, the greater the risk of disease.