In the mid 1980's, the US Surgeon General's office recognized nicotine as an addictive drug on par with herion. In the mid 1990's, they added cocaine to the list of drugs with an addiction catagorically the same as nicotine.
Secondhand smoke contains nicotine, ammonia, argon, arsenic, benzene, butain, cadmium, carbon monoxide, cyanide, formaldehyde, lead, mercury, stearic acid, tar, urethane, vinyl chloride and over 4,000 other chemicals.
Children of smokers develope asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, upper respiratory complications and ear infections at a significantly higher rate than children of non-smokers.
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