How Secondhand Smoke Affects Children

How Secondhand Smoke Affects Children

The Great American Smokeout is the American Cancer Society’s call to stop smoking. We all know that smoking leads to serious health problems for adults, but many people just don’t get that being in a room that smells like smoke increases and prolongs colds, coughs, sinus infections, and asthma in children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for 2 million ear infections in children each year.

I know smoking is a tough habit to quit. If adults choose to continue to smoke, please don’t do it in the same room as a child. Invest in HEPA air filters, houseplants, and a fresh coat of paint.  Even better — use the Great American Smokeout as a time to give yourself and your child a tremendous gift by starting a new, smoke-free life.

Dr. Alan Greene


  1. Andaraman

    I feel very deeply about baebis staying attached to their mama/placenta for as long as possible, not merely 30 seconds to 3 minutes. I find that still being attached to his or her placenta helps the baby’s transition to breathing a much gentler process. When allowed this time to transition many baebis cry less or none at all and simply look around and gaze at their mamas. I almost never see that red faced panicked cry we see so often in hospital birth videos, when the cord is cut right away and the baby is removed from his or her mother and taking of to the warming table . Babies deserve to receive all of their blood! Being stripped of that right is truly a set up for a baby with issues such as low blood sugar, lethargy leading to breastfeeding and bonding issues, weight loss and low iron levels. The placenta is natures way of assuring the baby receives oxygen if he or she doesn’t breath right away after birth. This amazing organ is the bridge that passes life to the baby. If severed you are set up to need to resuscitate a baby without a back up plan. You have removed the baby completely from receiving oxygen, if this baby has difficulty breathing on its own, you now only have technology to rely on. Myself I like to have mother nature to fall back on!


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