A US research finds that childhood passive smoking increases the risk of dying from lung disease.
The researchers said childhood passive smoking was “likely to add seven deaths to every 100,000 non-smoking adults dying annually”, says a BBC report.
The report says non-smoking adults have a higher risk of dying from serious lung disease if they grew up with parents who smoked.
The study of 70,900 non-smoking men and women was led by the American Cancer Society.
Experts said the best way to protect children was to quit smoking.
If participants lived with a smoker during adulthood, there were other health implications, the study found.
The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Participants were questioned about their exposure to smoking throughout their lives, and then their health was tracked over the next 22 years.
Dr Ryan Diver, one of the report’s authors, said: “This is the first study to identify an association between childhood exposure to second-hand smoke and death from chronic obstructive lung disease in middle age and beyond.
“Our findings provide further evidence for reducing second-hand smoke exposure throughout life,” he added.