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Life Guide U.S. essentials
English

Don't smoke at home or in the car, and don't let guests smoke at home

  • High value
  • Evidence A
  • Buys life
  • Free
  • Takes minutes
  • Some willpower

In plain words

About 600,000 (60万) people worldwide die each year from breathing other people's smoke, and nearly three in ten of them are children. For people who breathe secondhand smoke over the long term, the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke is higher by about 30%. Smoke breathed at home does more harm than smoke breathed outside.

Cost

Free, and it takes no time. The hard part is speaking up and asking family and guests not to smoke at home.

What you get

In 2004, 603,000 people worldwide died from secondhand smoke, about 1.0% of all deaths worldwide, and 28% of them were children. Pooling 57 studies, people exposed to secondhand smoke had about 1.28 times the odds of high blood pressure of people who were not (odds ratio). For heart disease it was 1.39 times, for heart attack 1.50 times and for stroke 1.36 times. The risk from secondhand smoke breathed at home is higher than from smoke breathed outside the home.

Notes

Start with the home, because you spend a lot of time there, and pooled studies show that secondhand smoke at home does more harm than smoke outside it. Of the health loss caused by secondhand smoke, 61% falls on children. To quit smoking yourself, see §2.1.

Evidence grade
A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.
Sources
  1. Öberg M, Jaakkola MS, Woodward A, Peruga A, Prüss-Ustün A (2011). Worldwide burden of disease from exposure to second-hand smoke: a retrospective analysis of data from 192 countries. Lancet：「603,000 deaths were attributable to second-hand smoke in 2004, which was about 1·0% of worldwide mortality. 47% of deaths from second-hand smoke occurred in women, 28% in children, and 26% in men」，「61% of DALYs were in children」. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61388-8
  2. (2026). The Associations Between Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Various Cardiovascular Diseases: A Meta-Analysis. Nicotine & Tobacco Research：57 项研究，「hypertension (OR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.40), heart disease (OR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.28 to 1.50), myocardial infarction (OR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.17 to 1.84), stroke (OR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.18 to 1.54)」「Home exposure has a higher risk of CVD than non-home exposure」. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaf111

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 2, tip 2. This section is about health and medicines. It is general information, not a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis or prescription. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer