How Secondhand Smoking Affects Us As many of you know, smoking is bad for your health, but what some of you may not know is that you don't actually have to smoke to be harmed by smoking . Lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women, is caused primarily by cigarette smoking. Passive smoking causes approximately 2% of lung cancer deaths each year. It causes respiratory disease, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), middle ear disease and asthma attacks in children. Imagine a room full of young, healthy second graders with a Joe Camel cigarette in their hand, smoking; this is basically what passive smoking means. It has toxic and carcinogenic effects that are practically the same as smoking a cigarette. Children from birth to 2 years of age are especially vulnerable to secondhand smoke because their lungs are not fully developed. The EPA estimates that secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory infections in infants and children under 18 months of age each year, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to have reduced lung function and symptoms such as coughing, excess phlegm, and wheezing. Secondhand smoking can lead to a buildup of fluid in the middle ear, the most common cause of children being admitted for surgery. Children with asthma are particularly at risk. Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the number of episodes and severity of symptoms in hundreds of thousands of asthmatic children. Between 200,000 and 1,000,000 asthmatic children have their conditions worsened by passive smoking.