WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- A U.S. government report has found one in three children live with a smoker, which increases their risk of respiratory conditions.
The report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality -- part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- said secondhand smoke is particularly harmful to children and increases the risk of serious lung disease during a child's first two years of life.
In addition, secondhand smoke can aggravate asthma symptoms and make children more likely to cough, wheeze and/or have a middle-ear problem, the report said.
Thirty-four percent of white children and 31 percent of African-American children live with an adult smoker. Poor children are almost twice as likely to live with an adult who smokes, the report said.
The more educated a family is, the less likely a child will live with a smoker. About 36 percent of those children in the Midwest lived with a smoker, compared with 33 percent in the South, 28 percent in the Northeast and 25 percent in the West.
