Everyone knows smoking is unhealthy for smokers. But did you know breathing in someone else’s smoke can make you and your children sick? 

Smoke from pipes, cigars, cigarettes, vapes (e-cigarettes), and hookahs all create secondhand smoke. Children who live in homes where people smoke may get sick more often. They may have more coughs, wheezing, ear infections, bronchitis, or pneumonia. Children with asthma might have asthma attacks that are more severe or occur more often.

Definitions

Secondhand smoke is the smoke that comes from someone else smoking. It is the smoke someone breathes out while smoking. It can also be smoke that comes off a burning cigarette, vape, cigar, pipe, or hookah.

Thirdhand smoke is residue that sticks to things. It is what you smell on clothes, furniture, in cars, and other surfaces.

What to Know About Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke comes from burning or heating tobacco through a cigarette, cigar, pipe, hookah, or vape. It also comes from the air a smoker breathes out while smoking.

Health Risks of Secondhand Smoke

Children are most vulnerable to secondhand smoke. Their bodies are still growing and developing. They also breathe faster than adults, so they breathe in more air or smoke. Children cannot control where they go or what adults around them do. The more smoke a child is exposed to, the more their health is at risk. Children whose caregivers smoke are most at risk.

Being around tobacco smoke can cause:

• Premature death and disease in adults and children who do not smoke
• Cancer in people who don’t smoke
• Ear problems
• More severe and new cases of asthma
• More cases of respiratory illness
• Lung cancer and heart disease
• Children’s lungs to grow more slowly
• Sudden infant death syndrome, also known as SIDS

Health Risks During Pregnancy

Breathing in tobacco smoke while pregnant can cause health problems for your baby, including:

• Cancers like leukemia and lymphoma
• Childhood brain tumors
• Low birth weight
• Increased risk of SIDS

Risks for Children with Asthma

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease. Secondhand smoke can cause new cases of asthma in children. It can also trigger asthma attacks in children and make their asthma symptoms worse.

What to Know About Thirdhand Smoke

Smoke from tobacco does not just blow away. Some of it stays behind as residue. It sticks to surfaces like walls, windows, furniture, and floors. It also sticks to skin, hair, and clothes. Smoke residue reacts with the air and becomes thirdhand smoke. It is toxic. Even if you don’t smoke around your children, you still bring the harmful chemicals from tobacco wherever you go.

When children touch or breathe in thirdhand smoke, it could harm their health. It may cause problems with their lungs, liver, and blood. They may have behavioral concerns or hyperactivity.

All tobacco products leave tobacco residue. Cigarettes, vapes, cigars, pipes, hookahs, and even smokeless tobacco all  expose people to harmful chemicals.

Opening windows or using fans or air conditioners does not get rid of smoke. Vacuuming and cleaning does not get rid of smoke residue. Stopping smoking is the only way to fully protect people from secondhand and thirdhand smoke.

Protect Your Family

Quitting smoking is the best way to protect your family from the dangers of secondhand and thirdhand smoke. There are proven ways to help you quit.

You can also reduce your children’s exposure by:

• Making your home and car smoke free. Family, friends, or visitors should never smoke inside your home or car.
• Keeping your children away from places people often smoke. Studies have shown children are exposed to twice as many toxins as adults who don’t smoke. Be aware of where people smoke,  especially when children are at the playground, waiting at the bus stop, or other places children spend a lot of time.
• Changing clothing and washing hands after smoking. Any adult who smokes should change their clothes and wash their hands after smoking. This can reduce the smoke residue your child touches or breathes in.

You can become a child’s hero by keeping a smoke-free home and car. Join the millions of people who are protecting their children from second and thirdhand smoke.

Last Updated: June 27, 2025