• Secondhand smoke, also called environmental tobacco smoke, hangs in the air for hours and days. The smoke particles are too small to see, but even if the air seems perfectly clear, it isn't. Even if you only smoke in one room, the smoke particles quickly filter all throughout the house.


• Cigarette smoke contains more than 400 chemicals. Many of these chemicals irritate the nose, sinuses, middle ear, and lungs. Many cause cancer in smokers. This is what your child and anyone else coming into your home breathes in.


• Secondhand smoke greatly increases the risk that your child will develop asthma. If he has asthma, it increases the risk that he will have to go to the emergency room or be hospitalized.


• Secondhand smoke also increases the risk of infections anywhere from your child's nose down to his lungs: sinus infections, ear infections (including "glue ear"), pneumonia, and bronchitis. The likelihood of needing surgery to have tubes put in the ears goes way up.


• There may be an increased risk of cancer, including leukemia, in children exposed to secondhand smoke.


• The more the exposure, the greater the risks are. Cutting down on the exposure does cut down the risk, but the only safe level of exposure is none at all.


• If you are pregnant, your smoking also may be harming your unborn baby. Babies exposed to cigarette smoke before birth are, as a group, smaller. According to some researchers, they are also more likely to have learning and behavior problems later in life.


• As soon as you reduce your child's exposure to secondhand smoke, the danger of it harming your child begins to go down. It is never to late!

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