Text 1
Passage A
Secondhand smoke is the smoke that is exhaled or that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar. Secondhand smoke can come in through cracks in the walls. It can hang around in hallways and doorways where people have been smoking.
Breathing someone else’s smoke can be deadly, especially if you live or work in a place where people smoke. That is why it is so important for smokers to go all the way outside if they want a cigarette. When one person smokes inside, it can cause problems for everyone else.
Children who are around tobacco smoke in their homes have more health problems like asthma and ear infections. They are sicker and stay in bed more. They miss more school days than children whose homes are smoke-free. Babies who live in homes with secondhand smoke are more likely to die as infants than other babies.
Passage B
The first conclusive evidence on the danger of passive smoking came from Takeshi Hirayama’s study in 1981 on lung cancer in non smoking Japanese women married to men who smoked. Although the tobacco industry immediately launched a multimillion dollar campaign to discredit the evidence, dozens of further studies have confirmed the link. Research then broadened into other areas and new scientific evidence continues to accumulate.
The risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers exposed to passive smoking is increased by between 20 and 30 percent, and the excess risk of heart disease is 23 percent. Children are at particular risk from adults’ smoking. Adverse health effects include pneumonia and bronchitis, coughing and wheezing, worsening of asthma, middle ear diseases, and possibly neuro-behavioural impairment and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. A pregnant woman’s exposure to other people’s smoking can harm her foetus. The effects are compounded when the child is exposed to passive smoking after birth.
Both passages can be best summarized as which of the following?