A Danger to Children Guidelines for Parents Secondhand smoke kills 50,000 Americans each year. It causes many illnesses in children like ear infections and hearing problems, respiratory problems like bronchitis and pneumonia, and asthma.
Secondhand smoke comes from cigarettes, pipes or cigars.
Researchers have now found that breathing in someone else's smoke is very dangerous, especially for children. Secondhand smoke is the smoke that is breathed out by a smoker and the smoke that comes from the tip of a burning cigarette. Exposure to secondhand smoke happens any time someone breathes in the smoke that comes from a cigarette, pipe or cigar. Secondhand smoke contains many dangerous chemicals that have been proven to cause cancer. Secondhand smoke has almost 4,000 chemicals in it that infants and children breathe in whenever someone smokes around them.