Health risks for family members when you smoke

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Health risks for family members when you smoke

The smoke from your cigarettes (secondhand smoke) puts your loved ones' health at risk. Even if you try to keep smoke out of your home by smoking outside, you still bring nicotine into your home on your clothing and hands, and in your hair.

• Spouses and children of people who smoke have an increased risk of cancer and heart disease, because of secondhand smoke.
• Babies whose parents smoke:
  • Are more likely to have ear infections, pneumonia, and bronchitis in the first few years of their lives.
  • Have a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Children of people who smoke are more likely to be smokers themselves.

When you quit smoking, you reduce all of these risk factors for health problems in your family. You also increase the chance that your children will not smoke or will quit if they already smoke.

Credits

Last updated:	July 24, 2007
Author:	Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS
Reviewed By:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine, John Hughes, MD - Psychiatry
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Michele Cronen