Video:

The Myth
I make sure I don’t smoke in front of my kids. Smoke can’t harm my kids if they’re in another room or far enough away, right?

People who smoke around their kids commonly believe that secondhand smoke can’t harm their kids if “enough distance” separates their kids from the cigarette smoke. Parents who believe this myth tend to have different definitions of what they think constitutes “enough distance.”

When it comes to the distance between secondhand smoke and your kids, how far away is far enough?

The Truth
When you (or anyone else) smoke in your home or in your car, there is no safe distance between the smoke and your kids. No matter where a cigarette is smoked in your home, the entire house ends up sharing the air. The only way to protect kids from secondhand smoke is to make sure cigarettes, cigars, and pipes are always smoked outside the home and outside the car.