Being a first-time mom can be overwhelming.

Tiffanie Delozier has her hands full with her son, Jaxton. But caring for him has also taught Delozier a lot about herself.

“Especially when I found out I was pregnant. It was a surprise. There are a lot of unknowns. There were a lot of things that felt scary at first, and that’s kind of what taught me to be like, 'you have to take things as they come,'” Delozier said.

She tries not to worry about things she can’t control, like when she takes Jaxton out for his daily walk and they pass by someone smoking marijuana.

“I think, for public spaces, I really don’t worry about it too much, especially being outside,” Delozier said.

With recreational marijuana use now legal in New York, smokers can light up almost anywhere they can smoke tobacco, and that raises the question of how secondhand marijuana smoke can affect people, especially young children.

“I don’t think it should be on a playground where kids are congregating, but when it’s just a normal public space, they can do what they want and it’s kind of my choice to walk further away from it if I’m feeling uncomfortable about it,” Delozier said.

A study published by the American Heart Association in 2016 showed rats that inhaled secondhand marijuana smoke for one minute had blood vessels that recovered functionality three times slower than rats breathing in one minute of secondhand tobacco smoke.

“When you are talking about specifically children, the problem is that it also is releasing THC, and so the children that are exposed to that secondhand smoke, they can get a secondary contact high,” said Brandi Ewing, director of respiratory services at Saint Peter’s Health Partners.

According to the CDC, more research is needed to understand the impact of THC exposure in children. Respiratory therapists say secondhand smoke, in general, including marijuana smoke, contains thousands of toxins.

Many areas in New York are off-limits for smoking, whether it’s tobacco or marijuana, and pot is still illegal under federal law.

Delozier, however, said smokers should be respectful of smoke-free zones in public places.

“You can’t expect other people to change or change their habits or their lifestyle, and that’s fine,” Delozier said.