People with asthma have very delicate airways. So, breathing in cigarette smoke is very hard for them. Because the cigs smoke can often bring on an asthma attack.

Doctors explained that asthma is a predisposition to chronic inflammation of the lungs in which the airways (bronchi) are reversibly narrowed. Statistics show that asthma affects 7% of the population of the United States, 6.5% of British people and a total of 300 million all over the world.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease affecting Latino children in the United States. Researchers found that secondhand smoke is the main factor which harms the breath of asthmatic children and people.

According to a recent study, clinically-based smoking cessation programs may not be enough to help Latino smokers with asthmatic children to quit smoking.

Researchers found that Latino parents with an asthmatic child were more likely to quit smoking after they received an anti-smoking intervention that informed them about how much secondhand smoke their children were exposed to, compared to parents who protect their kids from cigs smoke.

Researchers added that these all findings reinforce the importance of educating parents about how their own smoking can affect their children with asthma.

"Caregivers who continue to smoke near their child's asthma need an interference that not only provides feedback about the harmful effects of smoking products smoke on themselves and their child, but also factors in their cultural merits and willingness to quit," said Belinda Borrelli, PhD, of The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.

In general, asthma has now become the most common pediatric chronic illness in the United States, affecting an estimated 4.8 million children. More than half of American children under the age of 5 live in homes with at least one adult smoker, placing them at greater risk for a lot of illnesses, including asthma.

Research has shown also that these children take more asthma medications and use emergency services more frequently than asthmatic children who are not exposed to secondhand smoke.

However asthma – which in many cases is provoked by secondhand smoke – is much higher among Latinos than other racial or ethnic groups, concluded researchers.