Dear Peggy, Thank you for your communication. Let's keep things simple. There was far less asthma 20 years ago than there is now. If smoking among parents goes down while asthma rates go up during the same period, tobacco smoke cannot be blamed. There is nothing magical in tobacco smoke that makes it any more irritating or deadly than any other kind of smoke.
Tobacco is a plant.
It is organic. Its smoke is no different than burning leaves or wood burning in a fireplace. I am 49 years old. Throughout my life I have known only one person who had asthma. In grade school one of my friends had asthma.