We all know about the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke.

But what about the risks related to secondhand marijuana smoke — especially for young children?

A new study that was scheduled to be presented earlier today at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 meeting in Baltimore suggests that they're very real.

The main take-away from an American Academy of Pediatrics report about the analysis, entitled "Marijuana Exposure in Children Hospitalized for Bronchiolitis:" "One in six infants and toddlers admitted to a Colorado hospital with coughing, wheezing and other symptoms of bronchiolitis tested positive for marijuana exposure."

The lead researcher for the study was Karen M. Wilson, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. According to the AAP, Wilson and her team "recruited parents of previously healthy children between one month of age and two years old who were admitted to Children's Hospital Colorado between January 2013 and April 2014 with bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the smallest air passages in the lung."

Afterward, the parents filled out a questionnaire that asked about tobacco smoke and, during a later phase, marijuana smoke.

The children of parents who were marijuana smokers tested positive for THC approximately 16 percent of the time.

Moreover, this number rose after legalization of limited recreational marijuana sales took effect on January 1, 2014. Around 10 percent of pot smokers' kids tested registered for traces of THC before legalization, 21 percent afterward — and "non-white children were more likely to be exposed than white children," the study adds.

A statement by Dr. Wilson about the results reads in part: "Our study demonstrates that, as with secondhand tobacco smoke, children can be exposed to the chemicals in marijuana when it is smoked by someone nearby. Especially as marijuana becomes more available and acceptable, we need to learn more about how this may affect children's health and development."

She adds: "Marijuana should never be smoked in the presence of children."

Below, see the abstract from the study.

