Cigarette Smoking and Children

Children are at great health risk and danger from cigarette and tobacco smoke because a child's bodies still developing physically and their breathing rate is faster than that of adults. They inhale more oxygen than adults due to their growing needs. It will become a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack. Among young men and women who are otherwise at very low risk of developing coronary heart disease cigarette smokers are two to four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease. The longer a person smokes, the higher the risk of coronary heart disease.

Babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy often weigh less when they are born, than those who are born to non smoker mothers. Cigarette smoking significantly affects a baby's weight because of developing a less resistant body. Another cigarette smoking effect on children is high percentage of occurrence of sudden infant death syndrome to be suffered by babies whose mothers are smokers. Research has shown that children, who grow up in a smoky household, they have twice the amount of respiratory and lung disorders, and in some cases they even have to be hospitalised.

Studies shows that even breathing in very little amounts of tobacco smoke could set off a major attack in children with asthma and these attacks would be worse than those suffered by children with asthma who are not exposed to tobacco smoke. Reports have shown that exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to the development of asthma in children who were not born with it. Last but not least, while the harmful effects of cigarette smoking may hurt your own health and put a nice dent into your savings account, have you considered the negative impact it has on the people around you? It not only your child even family dog can suffer respiratory diseases from the harmful effects of cigarette smoking in your house.