Latest Findings
Tobacco Use: Secondhand Smoke
Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can be harmful to health.
Secondhand smoke contains toxic chemicals and causes disease.
- Secondhand smoke contains toxic and cancer-causing chemicals.
- Secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
- Secondhand smoke causes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and a number of health conditions in children, including middle ear infections, more severe asthma, and respiratory infections.
About 4 in 10 nonsmokers in the US (40%, or 88 million people) continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Almost everyone who lives with somebody who smokes indoors is exposed to secondhand smoke. Children and teens are more likely than adults to live in homes where someone smokes indoors.
- About 54% of children (aged 3–11 years) are exposed to secondhand smoke. Children are most heavily exposed at home.
- About 47% of youth (aged 12–19 years) are exposed to secondhand smoke.
- About 56% of black nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke compared with about 40% of white nonsmokers and 29% of Mexican-American nonsmokers.
Levels of secondhand smoke exposure in the US have greatly dropped during the last 20 years.
- Nearly 88% of nonsmokers in the US were exposed to secondhand smoke during 1988–1991.
- That number greatly dropped to about 53% by 1999–2000.
- About 40% of US nonsmokers were exposed to secondhand smoke during 2007–2008.
Contact Us:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333 - 800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636)
TTY: (888) 232-6348 - cdcinfo@cdc.gov