It's Labor Day weekend and you have packed the family into the car for the two-hour drive to grandma's house. Because of the heat, you crank the AC and keep the windows closed. The problem is you are a smoker and after just two cigarettes you will have exposed your spouse and kids to particulates at a level well above government safety standards.

Recent research on the dangers of secondhand smoke could help clear the air about the value of no-smoking laws governing bars and eateries.

Children whose mothers were exposed to second-hand smoke while they were pregnant have more symptoms of serious psychological problems compared to the offspring of women who had no prenatal exposure to smoke, according to a new University of Washington study.

The science has long been clear that smoking causes cancer, but new research shows that children could inherit genetic damage from a father who smokes.

With the growing number of smoking bans in restaurants and bars driving smokers outside, researchers in Athens, Georgia, are hoping to find out whether secondhand smoke from smokers clustered outside these establishments is posing a health hazard of its own.

With the growing concerns of children's exposure to secondhand smoke, it has become more critical than ever to involve health care providers such as pediatricians in educating parents about the potential hazardous health consequences.

A study published in this month's issue of the Journal of Periodontology found that subjects with periodontitis who were exposed to secondhand smoke were more likely to develop bone loss, the number one cause of tooth loss.