The Real Deal on Second-Hand Smoke
The scientific evidence on secondhand smoke is clear. The U.S. Surgeon General announced in 2006 that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, which is known to cause lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic lung diseases such as bronchitis and asthma.
- Secondhand smoke is the cigarette smoke that nonsmokers breathe. It includes smoke from the burning end of the cigarette, as well as smoke exhaled by the smoker.
- Secondhand smoke kills at least 40,000 nonsmokers in the U.S. each year, from heart disease, lung disease and cancer. (CDC MMWR, 2005)
- Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 cases of lung cancer each year in nonsmokers. It’s the third-most common cause of lung cancer, after active smoking and household radon. (Consumer Reports, 1995)
- Secondhand smoke is a health threat to your younger brothers and sisters, too. It is responsible for 150,000 to 300,000 serious respiratory ailments each year in small children and infants, including bronchitis, ear infections, asthma and pneumonia.
- Cigarette smoke is a toxic soup of more than 4,000 known chemical compounds. According to the National Cancer Institute, 69 of these are known to cause cancer in humans. (NCI, 2001)
Read the Youth Tobacco Survey (link opens in new window) for more on teen tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.
See the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch's Secondhand Smoke (link opens in new window) pages to read more about the health impact of secondhand smoke.