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Steven Masone hasn't lived with ex-wife Susan Tanner for seven years, but he still can't get over one of her habits: chain smoking. It bothers him because it bothers their daughter Elysa, 8, who suffers from asthma. Masone, a minister in Stockton, California, worries that Tanner is aggravating Elysa's condition by lighting up around her. He even got a court order five years ago, barring Tanner from smoking in Elysa's presence. But Tanner's puffing -- and Masone's huffing -- continued. Finally, after Elysa had an asthma attack this month, a doctor said the child would end up in an emergency room if things ! didn't change. Frantic, Masone went back to court. Last week, in a ground- breaking decision, a county judge gave temporary custody of Elysa to Masone's mother, ruling that Tanner's smoking was endangering her daughter's health.

It's not unusual for courts to rescue children from their own homes, but their parents are usually charged with gross neglect or abuse. Tanner, who plans to appeal, is losing her daughter for doing something that is perfectly legal, even if it is frowned upon by the Surgeon General. Hers is one of a growing number of cases, mainly involving children in divorce custody suits, in which judges have prohibited parents from smoking around kids who are sensitive to tobacco. Legal Times reported this month that courts in at least 11 states have dealt with the issue, almost always siding with the nonsmoking parent.

The legal actions herald a major new offensive by America's antismoking forces. Their campaign, having stormed through airplane cabins, office buildings and restaurants, is moving into the home. "Parents exposing their children to secondhand smoke is the most common form of child abuse in America," argues attorney John F. Banzhaf III, the executive director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Banzhaf, a longtime foe of the tobacco industry and mastermind of the child-protection strategy, got a major boost in January, when an Environmental Protection Agency report concluded that secondhand smoke causes 3,000 American adults to die of lung cancer each year. The study also blamed proximity to smoking for hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood respiratory illnesses, such as bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma.

The tobacco industry, which sued the EPA over the report, disputes the court judgments against smoking parents, arguing that the case against secondhand smoke hasn't been proved. In fact, some prominent scientists, including epidemiology expert Alvan Feinstein of the Yale medical school, believe the EPA may have overstated the evidence in its study. Nonetheless, most health researchers agree it is prudent to keep children away from smoke as much as possible.