I've never had this happen before..but could that be what is causing my symptoms?

I have asthma as well as one of my three children. My children have never been in contact with smoke but as a child I was since my father smoked(people didn't know at the time), as soon as he learned the cause of my illness he stopped smoking. yes, all kind of smoke can be a trigger, even dust and any kind of pollution. It's a pain in the neck, isn't it?(or should I say in the chest?)

Asthma is a genetic disorder. someone in your family, passed a bad gene on to you. If you have asthma, you'll probably pass that same gene to someone else.