Secondhand smoke and its toll on nonsmoker’s statistics were released by the National Cancer Institute - Non-smokers (our loved ones) receive the following equivalents of cigarette smoking, according to Katherine Hammond, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health:

Parental smoking a threat to kids' lungs - 60% of the children in the study had been exposed to cigarette smoke before birth or in early life with deadly consequences, the research found. (full story)

Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) - also called secondhand smoke, is the mix of smoke given off by both a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by a smoker. This mixture contains more than 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals and many of which are strong irritants. Exposure to ETS is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking.

Young children who breathe ETS are more susceptible to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). They also contract bronchitis and pneumonia, experience more ear infections, suffer more asthma attacks, and wheeze and cough. Approximately 3 million children (11%) aged 6 and under are exposed to ETS on a regular basis in their homes. (NOTE: “regular” is defined as 4 or more days/week.)

Asthma is an epidemic in the United States with a disproportionate impact on children. Approximately 17% of all households with children have had at least one child diagnosed with asthma. Children from low-income, low-education households are more likely to suffer from asthma, and children with asthma are just as likely to be exposed to ETS in their homes as children in general. EPA's goal is to increase the number of people with asthma who have reduced their exposure to environmental triggers of asthma from an estimated 3 million in 2003 to 6.5 million in 2012.

US EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA) has an active multi-pronged national-level program to combat asthma which focuses on preventing asthma symptoms by reducing children’s exposure to indoor environmental triggers, in particular Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS).

If you’re married to a smoker, you’ve got about a 30 percent greater risk of developing lung cancer - Being around secondhand smoke for just a few minutes does 80 to 90 percent as much harm to your heart as actively smoking, according to a study published in the medical journal Circulation. “Most of this damage is reversible within days or weeks, but if you keep getting exposure, your body won’t be able to repair itself,” explains study author Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. The damage isn’t just to your ticker, either: If you’re married to a smoker, you’ve got about a 30 percent greater risk of developing lung cancer.

According to a study published in the medical journal Circulation, women frequently exposed to smoke at home or work were 68% more likely to develop breast cancer.

Secondhand smoke costs USA nearly $10 billion a year - The Society of Actuaries said that the direct costs of secondhand smoke exposure are $4.98 billion, including expenses related to the treatment of heart disease, chronic pulmonary disease, lung cancer, asthma and other sicknesses. The study also detailed indirect costs of $4.68 billion, stemming from lost wages, reduced services and costs associated with disabilities. The group measured the costs by examining more than 200 studies that have been published since 1964 on the effects of environmental tobacco smoke. EXCERPTS from Reuters, August 17, 2006

Environmental Tobacco Smoke Harms & Kills - Calling it the nation's toughest law on college smoking, acting Gov. Richard Codey signed legislation yesterday that prohibits smoking in dormitories at both public and private New Jersey colleges.

"Today we are creating a safer, healthier college campus," Codey said before signing the bill at Drew University's Madison campus.

Two states, Connecticut and Wisconsin, have banned dorm smoking at public colleges, said Karen Blumenfield of New Jersey GASP, an anti-smoking organization. But local and national anti- smoking organizations said no state had ever banned smoking in dorms at both public and private institutions.

Drew University was the site of a Feb. 14 dormitory fire attributed to discarded cigarette ash on the floor of a room. More than 140 students were evacuated. No one was injured.