The smoke coming from the end of the burning cigarette contains much greater concentrations of dangerous poisons and cancer-causing substances than the smoke exhaled by the smoker. The same goes for smoking around your pregnant partner. Exposing a child to secondhand smoke is a form of child abuse. Although secondhand smoke is dangerous to everyone who comes in contact with it, fetuses, infants, and children are at greatest risk. This is because secondhand smoke can damage developing organs, such as lungs and brain.
Secondhand smoke is a personal and public health hazard.
Exposure to secondhand smoke is responsible for an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among nonsmokers in the U.S. each year, and linked to 36,000 deaths from heart disease annually. Passive smoking, in fact, is our country's third leading preventable cause of death after direct smoking and alcohol. Infants, children, and individuals of all ages with chronic respiratory or cardiac problems, asthma, allergies, or compromised health status are most adversely affected by secondhand smoke. Pregnant women and their unborn children are also adversely affected by secondhand smoke.