Second hand smoke is a major cause of children's illness -- yet 85% of adults who smoke and who live with a child do not ensure that the child is not exposed to the smoke from their cigarettes.
http://www.smoke-free.ca/Second-Hand...ealth_kids.htm
The impact of second-hand smoke on kids health
Second-hand smoke (which is sometimes called environmental tobacco smoke or ETS) contains toxic substances, over 40 of which cause cancer. Some of these substances are in stronger concentrations in second-hand smoke than they are in the smoke that goes directly into smokers? lungs.
ETS is causally linked with a number of adverse health effects in children (under 18), including:
lower respiratory tract infections (i.e. croup, bronchitis and pneumonia)
increased fluid in the middle ear
upper respiratory tract irritation
reduced lung function
additional episodes of asthma
increased severity of asthmatic symptoms in children
reduced oxygen flow to tissues, comparable to children with anemia, cyanotic heart disease or chronic lung disease ?
A U.S. analysis** of over 100 reports on pædiatric diseases concluded that children?s exposure to tobacco smoke is responsible for up to:
13% of ear infection
(approximately 220,000 ear infections in Canadian children)*
26% of tympanostomy tube insertions
(approximately 16,500 in Canada)
24% of tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies
(approx. 2,100 Canadian operations)
13% of asthma cases
(approx. 52,200 cases in Canada)
16% of physician visits for cough
(approx. 200,000 visits in Canada)
20% of all lung infections in children under 5
(approx. 43,600 cases of bronchitis in Canada and 19,000 cases of pneumonia in Canada)
136-212 childhood deaths from lower respiratory infection
(approx. 13-20 in Canada)
148 childhood deaths from fires started by tobacco products
(approx. 15 in Canada)
1868-2708 SIDS deaths?
(approx. 180-270 in Canada)