Second-hand smoke is a known asthma-trigger. Big, fat difference between behaving in a way calculated to cause your child to have an asthma attack she may die from and letting a kid drink a soda. Those parents probably triggered the asthma attack with their smoking. It's outrageous. My mother in law doesn't believe smoking is hazardous to health, either, which is why she won't see my kids on holidays. She refuses to order smokers to smoke outside. That's fine. It's her house. But every time my kid's asthma flares up he has to go on Prednisone. And his doctor said if there's a smoker in the family, he changes clothes in the garage. She doesn't want to tell the smokers to smoke on the porch, so she does without the company of my children on those days. The punch line? She's dying. Of emphysema.