Secondhand smoke is the name for the sickening, poisonous smoke given off by a burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe. Smokers may claim to have a right to smoke, but nonsmokers have a more important right to breathe safe air. So the next time one of your friends lights up in front of you, fire off these facts about secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke can produce six times the pollution of a busy highway when in a crowded restaurant.
Secondhand smoke causes 30 times as many lung cancer deaths as all regulated pollutants combined.
Secondhand smoke makes clothes and hair stink.

Secondhand smoke causes wheezing, coughing, colds, earaches, and asthma attacks.
Secondhand smoke fills the air with many of the same poisons found in the air around toxic waste dumps.
Secondhand smoke wrecks the smell and taste of food.
Secondhand smoke causes reddening, itching, and watering of the eyes.
Secondhand smoke kills about 3,000 nonsmokers each year from lung cancer.
Secondhand smoke causes up to 300,000 lung infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in infants and young children each year.