Secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke, is blamed for about 38,000 deaths annually in America alone. Secondhand smoke is the smoke that is emitted into the atmosphere when a person smokes a cigarette or a cigar. Secondhand smoke contains two types of smokes – mainstream smoke, which is the smoke due to the components of the cigarette, and sideline smoke, which the is the smoke given out by the burning tip of the cigarette. Hence, secondhand smoke is potentially more hazardous than direct smoke. It is estimated that if a person remains for two hours in a closed room where someone is smoking, that person has inhaled the equivalent of four cigarettes.
In the November 2001 report of the National Cancer Institute, secondhand smoke was labeled as a brand A carcinogen. Cigarette smoke contains 4,000 chemicals, all of which are also present in secondhand smoke. It contains at least 40 known carcinogens, both animal and human. Some of the chief carcinogens are nicotine, benzene, benzopyrene, 1,3-butadiene and formaldehyde, among many others. It also contains poisonous carcinogenic metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic.
The International Agency of Cancer Research (IACR), in its June 2002 report, clearly elucidated the harmful effects of passive smoking between married couples. A spouse who smokes vastly increases the partner’s risk of lung cancer. The percentage is given as 20% in males and 30% in females. Pregnant women who smoke may make their children susceptible to lung disorders, malformation of visceral organs, respiratory asthma and even the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Children and toddlers are the most vulnerable to secondhand smoke. It is found that children whose parents smoke are often infested with some respiratory ailment. It may aggravate children’s sinusitis, rhinitis and bronchia, and also make them more prone to minor ailments like common colds and coughs. A 1992 study of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed that each year passive smoking causes respiratory ailments in about 150,000 to 300,000 children under the age of 18 months.
The governments of various countries are taking severe measures to prevent passive smoking, which is now being called the greatest cause of preventable death in the US. Already in cities such as New York, smoking in public places and businesses is banned. Institutions are made to prominently display the ‘No Smoking’ board on their premises. At the same time drastic measures are being taken in order to prevent people from smoking completely. The horrifying statistics of smoking and passive smoking are shown to the public on various media channels to make them aware of the dangers. Some claim that one out of every eight smokers who dies is a passive nonsmoker. Several advertisements and placards against passive smoking have been devised and put up to curb its dangers.
Related Articles of Interest :
-
Effects Of Cigarette Smoking
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsMedical institutions around the world have concluded that cigarette smoking is related to many health problems. A recent study showed that smokers have a very high risk of acquiring lung cancer than non smokers. Major problems related to cigarette smoking include cancer of the throat,...
Read More -
Smoke Shop
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsShops that sell cigars, cigarettes, pipes, herbal mixtures and accessories such as pipes, hookahs and humidors are called smoke shops. They are found in almost every city and enjoy patronage from smokers of all kinds of tobacco and tobacco alternatives. Smoke shops sell all kind...
Read More -
Cigarette Smoke
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsThe innocuously tiny cigarette kills about 440,000 people in America each year. To make it more horrifying, it is said that one-fifth of all American deaths are due to smoking. Cigarette smoking can cause various kinds of cancers, emphysema, cardiovascular disorders, and finally death. In...
Read More -
Smoke
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsSmoke is the result of any incomplete combustion. When carbon-containing substances are not oxidized properly (that is, when they burn incompletely), then particles of that substance form a suspension with air, which is called smoke. Smoke usually contains carbon particles in hydrocarbon form, but sometimes...
Read More -
Herbal Smoke
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsMany people all over the world are now hooked on a new trend – herbal smoking, also known as legal bud smoking. Legal bud smoking involves inhaling the fumes of several herbs, after lighting them, either through specialized pipes, chillums or just by rolling them...
Read More -
Stop Smoking
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No Comments“It is easy to quit smoking; I’ve done it hundreds of times,” Mark Twain once quipped jocularly. It is no wonder most smokers who want to quit smoking end up like the illustrious American author. When you smoke, you breathe in over 4,000 chemicals including...
Read More -
Hookah Smoke
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsDevised in the Middle East several centuries ago, the hookah is considered very hip among teen smokers in the US. The hookah, also known by different names as the shisha, narghile or the slang term ‘hubble-bubble’, actually consists of a metal cylinder fitted with a...
Read More -
Cigar Smoke
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsCigars, which probably originated in Spain, have been embedded in popular culture and social life all around Europe and America for several centuries. Today cigar smoking is considered to be as elitist as wine-tasting. It has become one of the idiosyncrasies of those in the...
Read More -
Lung Cancer
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsLung cancer is the most frequently lethal cancer in the United States. Among all causes of death, lung cancer ranks second after heart disease for males, and third after heart and cerebrovascular disease for females. In 2002 alone, over 150,000 people in the United States...
Read More -
Smoke Machine
10 August 2010 8:30 PM | No CommentsSmoke machines, better known as fog machines, have been used in stage shows, rock concerts and movies for decades. These machines produce a smoke-like haze that is a mixture of carbon dioxide and glycol-based compounds. Smoke machines work by being filled with a mixture called...
Read More