Passive Smoking Kills

Passive smoking is the involuntary inhalation of cigarette smoke of other people's cigarettes. Passive smoking, secondary smoke, second hand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke all relate to the same thing - that being the involuntary inhalation of tobacco smoke. Cigarette smoke is generally defined as either the exhaled smoke from a smoker or the 'side stream' smoke from the cigarette tip. It is made up of over 4,000 chemicals of which, 40 or so are known to cause cancer, including numerous hydrocarbons, arsenic, and polonium.

Smokers choose to inhale this noxious combination of chemicals and carcinogens but non-smokers do not. In the case of children or babies, there is normally no choice whatsoever and it is estimated that some 700 million children around the world are exposed to secondary smoke from the 1.2 billion smokers in the global population.

It is well documented now that secondary smoke or passive smoking has some adverse affects on the passive smoke and most significantly, when they are children. Indeed, in an extract from the 1997 Declaration of the Environment Leaders of the Eight (G8) on Children's Environmental Health, they stated

"We affirm that environmental tobacco smoke is a significant public health risk to young children and that parents need to know about the risks of smoking in the home around their young children. We agree to co-operate on education and public awareness efforts aimed at reducing children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke."
So, what evidence is the G8 working from and why should we care? Well, a review by the World Health Organization in 1998 concluded that passive smoking is a cause of bronchitis, pneumonia, coughing and wheezing, asthma attacks, middle ear infection, cot death, and possibly cardiovascular and neurobiological impairment in children. Furthermore, a report in 1992 by the Royal College of Physicians in London estimates that 17,000 under 5s are admitted to hospitals in the UK every year as a direct result of passive smoking.

A report from Hong Kong in 2001 concluded that children living in homes where there are two or more smokers are 30% more likely to be admitted to hospital for treatment than those living in a smoke-free house.

Scientists, doctors, and even environmentalists have done much research when it comes to passive smoking and its effects. This research has borne out the fact that secondhand smoke that is, the smoke released by the smoldering end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by the smoker, causes the same problems as direct smoking. This includes lung cancer, heart diseases, heart attacks, strokes, bronchitis, asthma, and a host of other diseases.
Persons who live with smokers have been shown to have a 20-30% greater risk of lung cancer than non-smokers who live in a smoke-free environment.

Most people are very concerned with their own families more than anything, and it's surprising to most when they find out how much damage has been done and continues to be done when one smokes. Adults or children with asthma can experience attacks brought on by passive smoking, and tobacco has an immediate effect on the blood vessels, causing them to constrict, making the heart work hard. In 1992, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a review of the available evidence regarding the relationship between secondhand smoke and heart disease, and estimated that passive smoking was responsible for 35,000 to 40,000 deaths per year in the United States in the early 1980s. Parental smoking can affect children and babies, and is associated with low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis and pneumonia, and middle ear infections.

Yes, there really is reason to learn about passive smoking and how it affects everyone around you, and there is good reason to care about those effects as well.

One more thing -- How long do you think it will be before some lawyer realizes that you might be able to sue for murder or assault for second-hand smoking?

Every time you light up a cigar or cigarette in the presence of someone else you are putting them at increased risk of cancer, Crohn's disease and respiratory diseases such as asthma or bronchitis. You are also making it more likely that the people who are passively smoking because of your tobacco product will develop cardiovascular ailments as well as increasing their chances of getting nose, throat and ear infections. Passive smoking is particularly dangerous for children who may not be aware of the dangers they face when they breathe in second hand smoke. Perhaps the most disturbing fact about passive smoking is that it increases the chance of a young child dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Unfortunately, these warnings about passive smoking are not simply the hysterical paranoia of politically correct people who want to control the world and everything in it. The dangers of passive smoking are real and there is clinical research to prove them. Therefore, if you are a smoker it would be erroneous on your behalf to dismiss the hazards of passive smoking and continue to smoke in the presence of your children, relatives or anybody else.
They have always been at the receiving end of passive smoking dangers and it's truly unfair that it should happen to them. 'Why?', you may ask. Here are a few reasons:
1) Cancer. This is perhaps one of the most glaring passive smoking dangers out there. The amount of carcinogens, or cancer inducing, compounds in the smoke that firsthand smokers exhale is potent to cause harm to the people around them. Cigarette smoke consists of 69 cancer-causing components, which range from benzene (a component in tar), to arsenic (a dangerous poison).
2) Breathing difficulties. This passive smoking danger is understood. It is always harder to breathe whenever you are in the midst of a smoker. This problem may be temporarily solved by moving away from the stream of smoke and getting some fresh air. However, for those who have a smoker for a husband, or a mother, will be exposed to more long-lasting effects. Cigarette smoke can penetrate deep into your lungs, constricting your blood vessels and airway. It can also cause the production of excess mucus, which may lead to emphysema.
3) Endangers the young. Secondhand smoke is more virulent when it comes to children. Since, they are at the stage where their body is still growing; they can be more susceptible to passive smoking dangers. The effects are worse if the smoker is a pregnant mother. Her unborn baby could be badly and irrevocably deformed.

If you know someone who is exposing others to passive smoking, educate them about it and advise them to quit. If it is you then it is time to kick the habit. Why others should be exposed to the effects of passive smoking when they do not smoke. Quitting is easy even for those who have tried it before and not succeeded. There are ways that you can learn to stop completely.

Articles