The health hazards of smoking are well known, and these dangers extend to nonsmokers exposed to the

secondhand wisps of cigarette toxins as well. But researchers now report on a particularly worrisome

problem--high blood pressure--emerging among a particularly worrisome population: children whose

parents are smokers.

Compared with youngsters of nonsmoking parents, preschoolers exposed to secondhand smoke had a

21% greater chance of hypertension, defined as blood-pressure values in the top 15% for their age group.

That's especially troubling, say experts, since high blood pressure in childhood can carry over into

adulthood. And given that elevated blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke,

youngsters whose pressure is high early on may be more vulnerable to heart attacks later in life.

Protecting youngsters from passive smoke exposure may therefore have long-term health

benefits--especially important in the U.S., where 26.8 million adults already have some form of heart

disease.