What defines a "former smoker"?

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I noticed on my cardiologist office's records that I am marked as a "former smoker." I made clear to the assistant that I had only tried smoking a few times (the last time being several years ago) and never smoked regularly, so that classification may not be accurate or useful. I thought the issue was resolved, but when I received my summary of that visit, it still said "former smoker."

In that case, what defines a "former smoker"? As I understand, trying smoking a few times is very unlikely to have any major health effects; rather, what significantly increases your risk for conditions like COPD and lung cancer is regular use over a significant period of time. Because of that, it seems like it would serve no purpose to classify the former as a "former smoker," and such classification may even give a misleading impression to anyone checking the records, while it is the latter that should be so classified, if they have since stopped smoking and not restarted.

In either case, I will discuss this with my cardiologist when I go back to see her Friday.

I reckon a former smoker is someone who used to smoke on a regular basis and then gave up.

This is less likely a problem of definition and one of ongoing error. Once something is entered into medical records (erroneous or not), it is very hard to shed it.
I would keep pestering the doctor to have it removed and remind them that you don't really fit the classification, but, unless they try to put you through pointless tests, I don't know if it's really a problem.

When a parent is a regular smoker and their children hang around them, they are breathing in the second hand smoke. Second hand smoke can also affect the organs of the body. Correct me if I'm wrong.