Asthma and Secondhand Smoke: Jamason's Story

A story from CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign. The words of Jamason and his mother are paraphrased here.

Jamason was diagnosed with asthma as a baby, and for years it seemed manageable. He had never smoked; when friends tried to talk him into a cigarette, he told them smoking just wasn't cool. What he didn't understand was how dangerous other people's smoke could be for him.

The attack

His mother, Sherri, a nurse, began to notice in his teens that he wheezed and struggled to breathe after spending time with friends who smoked.

His worst attack came at 16, at the fast food restaurant where he worked. He was sweeping near coworkers who were smoking when his chest tightened and he could not get air into his lungs. Frantic, he called his mother. She found him gasping, and he told her he couldn't breathe. She was terrified, she said, and did everything she could to save her child, knowing an asthma attack can kill. On the drive to the hospital she held his hand and told him to squeeze it now and then so she would know he was still breathing.

Jamason spent 4 days in the hospital, with breathing treatments every 2 to 4 hours. When he could breathe comfortably again he was relieved, but afraid to leave: inside the hospital nobody smoked, but outside, in the real world, people do, and he did not want to go through it again. As Sherri put it, when secondhand smoke sets off asthma, there is no knowing how severe the attack will be.

Living with the risk

Jamason still worries that anyone's cigarette, anywhere, could trigger another attack. Now 18, he asks people not to smoke near him and tells them about the dangers of secondhand smoke, which can set off severe asthma attacks at any age. For him it is a matter of life and death, and he ended one friendship with someone who would not stop smoking around him.

He plans to go to college after high school, and was delighted to learn that some campuses are smoke-free, where he could study without fear of other people's smoke.

Help to quit

Free help is available for anyone who wants to stop smoking:

• 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669); in Spanish, 1-855-DÉJELO-YA; in Chinese, 1-800-838-8917; in Korean, 1-800-556-5564; in Vietnamese, 1-800-778-8440;
• text QUITNOW to 333888 (message and data rates may apply);
• CDC's quitSTART app and Smokefree.gov.

Sources

• CDC, Tips From Former Smokers, "Jamason C.'s Story": https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/stories/jamason.html
• CDC, "Asthma and Secondhand Smoke": https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/secondhand-smoke-asthma.html
• The campaign's photographs of Jamason and its print ad are not reproduced here.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.