Smoking, as we all know, is extremely harmful. It causes many minor and major ailments (especially of the lungs and heart), pollutes the environment and affects not only the smokers but those around them as well. Many brush off these effects saying that they are hyped and exaggerated. But as more research is being done on this, the evidence that smoking does have all the effects mentioned above is getting stronger. Kids are possibly the most affected ones by smoking.
Smoking parents could hurt kids’ lungs
Small children suffer the most due to smoking because their body is very young and delicate and absorbs these chemicals more easily than grown-ups. Due to this, more chemicals enter their body even if they are exposed to the same amount of toxins. They are also at a greater risk of diseases, especially of the lungs, at a younger age as these toxins keep accumulating in their systems from a very young age.
Lungs are affected the most at a very young age itself as they bear the brunt of all the toxins that enter the body. Also, most of the chemicals get accumulated in the lungs. Kids, therefore, are at a higher risk of developing asthma and other chronic respiratory ailments.
Along with this, another reason why kids get affected more than others due to smoke is not because they are exposed more to second and third hand smoke than others, but because they are helpless. Most children are not even old enough to understand that smoke is bad and it can harm them. Also, when an adult smoker holds them or smokes around them, they cannot protect themselves from the smoke and the particulate toxins.
So it is best if you quit smoking altogether. If this is not possible, you should at least make sure not to smoke around children as well as wash your hands and mouth well before holding or playing with kids after smoking. This will protect them to some extent from the harmful effects of cigarette smoke.
