Health Tips

It’s a pretty common knowledge that exposure to cigarette smoke is bad for you, even if you are not the one actually smoking.

And we addressed these unfortunate non-smokers as a secondhand smoker or passive smoker.

Generally, people can be exposed to secondary smoke in homes, cars, their workplace, and even public places.

This smoke comes from burning tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars or pipes.

Secondhand Smoke Facts

1. Exposure to secondhand smoke increases your stroke risk by 20-30% and cardiovascular disease risk by 25- 30%

The toxic from cigarettes smoke makes your blood stickier, raises your “bad” LDL cholesterol, thus damaging the lining of your blood vessels.

In the long-term, you are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke from these inevitable changes.

“Just 30 minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke can cause heart damage similar to that of an everyday smoker.”

2. Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including hundreds that are toxic and about 70 that can cause cancer.

Basically, there’s no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can be harmful to health.

3. Secondhand smoke causes and aggravates asthma and other breathing problems, particularly in children. 

Children breathe at a faster rate than adults, inhaling a lot more smoke that contains poisons such as carbon monoxide, cyanide, and benzene that can affect their health in numerous ways. 

Exposure to secondhand smoke posed a greater risk for serious health issues, such as ear infections, respiratory infections, asthma attacks, bronchitis and more.

4. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke regularly, have a higher chance of becoming a smoker as an adolescent or an adult.

Youth smokers are more likely to develop severe levels of nicotine addiction compared to adults, which leads them to be tobacco users themselves when they grow older.

5. Classified as Class A Carcinogen, secondhand smoke kills nearly 50,000 nonsmokers each year from Heart Disease and Lung cancer

Category A Carcinogen means it’s the highest category known to have carcinogenic potential for human, based on human evidence.

In non-smokers, secondhand smoke causes approximately 7,300 lung cancer deaths and nearly 34,000 heart disease deaths per year.

6. Research has even shown that pets can be affected by secondhand smoke

Dogs and cats are twice as likely to develop nasal cancer if their owner smokes, as compared to households without cigarette smoking.

What You Can Do To Reduce Exposure to Secondhand Cigarettes Smoke

Protect yourself and your family from secondhand smoke by doing these things:

• Not allowing anyone to smoke anywhere near your home

• Not allowing anyone to smoke in your car, even with the windows down

• Making sure your children’s school and day-care are free from tobacco smoke

• Eat at restaurants that forbid people from smoking (if your state still allow smoking in public areas

• Teaching your children to stay away from smoking and secondhand smoke

• Being a good role model by not smoking or using any other type of tobacco

Eliminating secondhand smoke by implementing tobacco-free protections is crucial to bring the number of deaths, illnesses, and losses of productivity down as a result of secondhand smoke exposure.

REMINDER:

“YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BREATHE CLEAN AIR. Smoking is not a constitutional right, and the right to privacy does not include the right to expose others to the negative health effects of secondhand smoke.” -Tobacco Control Legal Consortium

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References:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/general_facts/index.htm.

2. Truth Initiative. (2018). The impact of secondhand smoke. [online] Available at: https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/impact-secondhand-smoke.

3. Who.int. (2019). WHO | About second hand smoke. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/tobacco/research/secondhand_smoke/about/en/.

4. Blahd. W (2017). Effects of Secondhand Smoke. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/effects-of-secondhand-smoke.

5. Tobacco Stops With Me. (2019). Secondhand Smoke. [online] Available at: https://stopswithme.com/dangers-of-tobacco-products/secondhand-smoke/.

6. Facts About Secondhand Smoke. (2017). [pdf] Austin: LiveTobaccoFreeAustin.org. Available at: https://www.livetobaccofreeaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Secondhand-Smoke.pdf.

Image credit:

1. https://blog.chocchildrens.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/effects-of-secondhand-smoke-on-kids-1038x576.jpg

2. https://www.verywellmind.com/thmb/WjVqUAJ4oEPsi8VIFqKy3GdnqY8=/1700x1190/filters:fill(ABEAC3,1)/secondhand_smoke_children-57a7d7815f9b58974a9c9c9b.jpg

3. https://ehs.ucsf.edu/sites/g/files/tkssra1986/f/wysiwyg/carcinogen.png

4. https://cdn1.medicalnewstoday.com/content/images/articles/312/312964/is-it-a-heart-attack.jpg

5. https://www.compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Cigarette-Smoke-Compounds.png

6. https://otdashboard.s3.amazonaws.com/news/uploads/twitter_articles/big_hightlights/3/3/3/333e64ac2cb218e81cec2bb089070027.JPEG

7. https://onmilwaukee.com/images/articles/wi/wisconsinsmokingbanfollowup/wisconsinsmokingbanfollowup_story1.jpg

8. https://cdn.24.co.za/files/Cms/General/d/7819/31e341c6ea6b485198e16874cdff872b.jpg

9. https://grantsburganimalhospital.com/images/gb.jpg

Written By

Dr. Jeanrette J. Nierras

Reviewed By

Doc2us Medical Board