According to the National Cancer Institute, secondhand smoke can have serious consequences for nonsmokers. Secondhand smoke can cause the onset of lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, all of which can affect life insurance rates for those who are exposed.
Americans have been taught as a culture that there is only one way to avoid the negative health effects of cigarette smoking: don’t smoke. However, studies have shown that even if children are not smoking, they are being exposed to tobacco smoke.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children living in apartment buildings, even if they live in smoke-free households, are significantly more likely to be exposed to tobacco smoke than those living in stand-alone houses.
The study discovered that children living in apartment buildings had 45 percent more nicotine byproduct in their bloodstreams than those living in single-family homes, implying that they were exposed to secondhand smoke through building ventilation systems or smoke absorbed through shared walls.
The study, which followed over 5,000 children aged 6 to 18 living in smoke-free units, discovered that more than 84 percent of those in apartment buildings had been exposed to tobacco smoke, compared to 80 percent of children in attached houses and 70 percent in stand-alone homes.