Active and Passive Smoking

Passive smoking is known to be more dangerous compared to that of the actual smoker. Reason of the matter is that lungs are a sensitive part of the human body. Inhaling and breathing normally has no known constraints since the air that anyone would breathe will surely be something that cannot be properly disseminated and classified as far as polluted air intake is concerned. Allergies can be contracted as well, stemming from unknown sources. One of the more common sources is that of polluted air or passive smoking as well. There would be a wide array of possible diseases that a person may eventually encounter, most of the time needing a thorough examination of the medical history of a person to further trim down the issues with regards to the point of origin.

Environmental or passive smoking describes the unintentional inhalation of smoke given out by cigarettes, cigars, pipes or any tobacco based product. In some example it is described as second-hand smoke or even as sidestream smoke from cigarettes. People who occupy the same areas as those who smoke tobacco products are definitely negatively affected by passive smoking, this may include your partner, loved ones and children, and even your pets! It will increase their risk of cancer, heart disease, strokes and respiratory disease. Smoke will linger even in a well ventilated room for more than two hours after the last cigarette has been completed, giving plently of time for it to be inhaled time and time again.

As adults we have free will to move away from smokers or a smoke room if we so choose (even this is within reason). However this is much more difficult, and in some cases impossible, for a child. Active smokers directly use cigarette, cigar or bidis for smoking. There are many negative effects of active smoking. Cancer of different body organs is largely associated with smoking. The affected organ may be lungs, esophagus, liver, kidney, cervix, pharynx, larynx, throat, bladder, or even bone marrow. Other biological effects include various complications during pregnancy, damage of digestive system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system etc.

Passive smoking is only inhaling the smoke just by standing beside a person who is smoking or may be from the environmental tobacco smoke. By inhaling the second hand smoke, nicotine and other carcinogens and toxins are going inside the lung of the passive smokers. As a result they may experience sore eyes and throat, frequent headache, coughing, sneezing, dizziness, nausea and irritation in nasal area and many more unusual symptoms. Though passive smokers do not get addicted to smoking by this process, but for sure they share the effects of active smoking. They also are prone to all the diseases mentioned for active smokers, but in a slower rate.

Non-smokers have a twenty-five percent increased risk of lung cancer when exposed to passive smoking in the home. In a press release by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 9, 1998, it said that the increased risk of lung cancer among non-smoking spouses of smokers was estimated at sixteen percent and in the workplace, an estimated increased risk of seventeen percent. In 2002, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the WHO, a group of 29 experts from 12 countries, convened by the Monographs Programme. They reviewed all major published evidence related to tobacco smoking and cancer.

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