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Secondhand smoke claims the lives of 42,000 people
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Secondhand smoke kills 42,000 people each year in the United States alone, including 900 children who die from secondhand smoke.
In total, the annual number of deaths from passive smoking can be equated to almost 60,000 years of potential life lost due to tobacco smoke clouds.
A study using biomarker analysis to assess the physical and economic consequences of cigarette smoke exposure found that secondhand smoke harms unevenly but is particularly harmful to African Americans, especially black infants.
The study findings indicate that despite the best efforts of public health organizations to reduce tobacco consumption, passive smoking continues to cause irreparable harm to the health of non-smokers.
"In general, the number of smokers has fallen and many have changed their habits to lead healthier lifestyles, but our data shows that tobacco exposure still causes enormous harm," said lead author Professor Wendy Max. "Being able to analyse biomarkers allows us to more accurately assess the impact of passive smoking on people."
Exposure to tobacco smoke causes a number of fatal diseases, including heart and lung diseases. In addition, tobacco smoke is one of the factors that affects the weight of newborn children and provokes the development of respiratory distress syndrome.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 49,400 adults died from inhaling cigarette smoke, and 776 children died in the womb from women smoking during pregnancy.
To assess the impact of secondhand smoke, the researchers used serum cotinine, a nicotine biomarker that measures the chemical effects of tobacco smoke in the blood. This analysis reflects the harm of secondhand smoke in any setting, not just at home or work, the authors write.
Scientists measured the economic consequences of passive smoking: how many years of potential life a person can lose, how much their productivity is reduced, etc. The participants in the studies were people of different racial and ethnic groups.
Of the 42,000 people who died from secondhand smoke, 80% were white, 13% were black, and 4% were Hispanic. The vast majority of deaths were due to coronary heart disease. Black infants accounted for a staggering 24% of the 36% of all infant deaths from secondhand smoke, despite the fact that blacks make up only 13% of the U.S. population (as of 2006).
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