原文：Second-hand tobacco smoke exposure causes serious health problems
The scientific evidence of the health harms of smoking has been conclusively established for more than 50 years (24). However, smokers are not the only ones sickened and killed by tobacco: nonsmokers who breathe air containing second-hand tobacco smoke also face increased risk of disease and death. In the quarter century since evidence confirmed the health hazards of secondhand tobacco smoke (25–27), 14 scientific consensus reports by virtually all major medical and scientific organizations, including the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (6), the United States Surgeon General (28), the California Environmental Protection Agency (29), and the United Kingdom Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (30) leave no doubt that exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke contributes to a range of serious and often fatal diseases in non-smokers.
Multiple studies confirm that exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke causes illness, disability and death from a wide range of diseases (31). Second-hand tobacco smoke exposure contributes to about 1% of the total global disease burden, and represents about 10–15% of the disease burden caused by active smoking (16). Second-hand tobacco smoke exposure is also associated with reduced health-related quality of life among people who have never smoked, with higher levels of exposure resulting in a greater reduction in quality-of-life measures (32). Even house pets in homes where people smoke are more likely to develop cancer (33–35).
Among newborns exposed either in utero or after birth, there is an increased risk of premature birth (36) and low birth weight (37) and a doubling of the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (38). Among children exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke, there is a 50–100% higher risk of acute respiratory illness (39), higher incidence of ear infections (28) and an increased likelihood of developmental disabilities and behavioural problems (40, 41).
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