What Causes Asthma in Children?
Smoking Facts About the Effects of Smoking Cigarettes Around Children

Asthma in Children Who Live with Smokers

Secondhand smoking is now recognized as a significant risk factor in the development of asthma in children.

A growing child is vulnerable to permanent damage from the effects of cigarette smoking in their environment. A child has small airways and it does not take much swelling to significantly reduce their intake of oxygen.

What is Asthma?

Asthma is often caused by an allergic reaction to foreign substances that affect the respiratory tract.

Part of the allergic response includes swelling of the lining of the airways and tightening of the muscles that surround the airways. This makes it hard to get air in and out of the lungs and causes the characteristic wheezing sound associated with an asthma attack.

What Causes Asthma Attacks?

An asthma attack can be triggered by a number of different factors including:

• Allergens - mold, pollen, animals


• Irritants - cigarette smoke, air pollution


• Weather - cold air, changes in weather


• Exercise - usually the asthma will occur 5 - 20 minutes after a vigorous exertion.


• Infections - flu, common cold

Smoking Facts About What Causes Asthma in Children

• Children who live with smokers have higher rates of asthma than children who live with non smokers.


• Asthma in children is more likely to be less controllable if the child lives with one parent who smokes.


• Asthma in children is more common (by a factor of ten) if mother smoked while pregnant.


• Even if a child does not have asthma they have a 40% higher chance of developing a respiratory illness severe enough to be absent from school if they live with parents who smoke and second hand smoke raises the risk of asthma in children who were not born with it.


• asthma is one of the leading causes of missed school days.

Many children who live in non-smoking homes with non-smoking parents still have asthma. Allergies have a strong genetic component and a child who has parent with asthma and/or allergies has a higher chance of being asthmatic.

However, the higher rates of asthma among children engaged in secondhand smoking is significant enough to suggest that smoking is what causes asthma attacks in children who live with smokers.

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