Cigarettes, Smoking, and Secondhand Smoke and Family Health

Smoking cigarettes and the associated exposure to secondhand smoke can negatively affect all family members. The purpose of this entry is to describe the impact of smoking cigarettes and exposure to secondhand smoke across different roles within the family and steps health care providers can take to intervene. Tobacco use is widely recognized as the most preventable cause of illness and death in the United States. Cigarette use is a known cause of numerous diseases, including multiple cancers, heart disease, stroke, complications of pregnancy, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and is a risk factor for six of the world's eight leading causes of death. Approximately 21% of adult Americans smoke, representing 45 million current smokers. Worldwide, almost 1 billion men and approximately 250 million ...