Passive Smoke As A Child Harms The Function Of The Respiratory System

Children’s immune systems are weaker which makes them easy targets of the second hand smoke. Also, it can decrease a child’s lung efficiency and impair the lung functions. Second hand smoke has also been known to cause children to have severe asthma as well.

Regardless of consumer belief, smoking dramatically increases the chances of contracting many diseases - such as heart disease or high blood pressure. Although not every user experiences these diseases, it is well known that smoking can decrease one’s life time dramatically. The information given states, “It’s virtually impossible to escape the effects of tobacco” (Jordan). This stated, Jordan expresses that essentially if you use tobacco, there is a fairly high chance that one will damage his/her body in some way. Furthermore, there are many more diseases that can be contracted and the ones stated are only the most common. Continuing, the author explains the affects of smoking, “Expose to specific elements of secondhand smoke causes blood clot more easily and damages arterial lining” (Jordan). As stated, certain components in tobacco increase the chances of high blood pressure and blood clots to form in the body. Concluding, respiratory problems in young children can occur through second hand smoking, these include asthma. Children that asthma effect increases from smoke, “Asthma turns out to be about twice as common in children exposed to high levels of second hand smoke” (Secondhand Smoke: Is it a Hazard). Not only does tobacco smoke increase other diseases, it also increases the severity of diseases already contracted as shown in the previous quote. To conclude, tobacco smoke

Your baby may be affected by nicotine and toxic substances in your breast milk, secondhand smoke, and thirdhand smoke.

According to the Center for Disease Control, (CDC) there are toxic chemicals in cigarettes that “affect the brain in ways that interfere with its regulation of infants' breathing” (CDC, 2010). Autopsy reports also show “higher concentrations of nicotine in their lungs and higher levels of cotinine (a biological marker for secondhand smoke exposure) than infants who die from other causes” (CDC, 2010).

Constantly smoking means the baby is smoking to, therefore smoking can begin to effect the baby’s only sources of oxygen and nutrients. Smoking contains over 4,000 chemicals including: lead, cyanide, arsenic and carbon monoxide. These chemicals can spread to the blood stream, which is the baby’s only source of oxygen and nutrients. Smoking may also result with problems taking place in the placenta. This is connected to the baby and is their source of food, oxygen and eliminates buildup of wastes. The baby can separate from the womb, which can result in bleeding, for this effect can be dangerous to the mother and child.

Smoking is the number one preventable risk and cause of disease and death. Tobacco kills more people than car crashes, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and alcohol, drugs, suicides and murders combined, and effects smokers and nonsmokers alike. A nonsmoker on average lives 13 to 14 years longer than a smoker does. Although we have made strides in reducing the prevalence of smoking in the country, it is still an important problem that continues to cause morbidity and mortality. Secondhand smoke exposure also affects nonsmokers and causes lung cancer. When children are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, mostly in the predominant location of the home, smoking increases their incidence of asthma, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), ear infections, and respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

Healthy People 2020 describes some of the harmful effects caused by tobacco. Those causes outlined are cancer, heart disease and stroke, lung diseases, reproductive effects, and many other diseases. (2017) These harmful effects are direct to the smoker but are also harmful secondhand to those who because subjected to the smoke. Children are especially exposed to secondhand smoke as they have limited control in escaping from it. Diseased commonly caused and also discussed in Healthy People 2020 are “severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)” (2017) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted an article with the Surgeon General, titled, The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress.; outlined in

Pathophysiology: Tobacco smoke contains 1000 different compounds including carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, carcinogens. The two main compounds that cause harmful effects on a developing fetus is nicotine and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide has a higher affinity than oxygen for hemoglobin. Which when Carbon monoxide and hemoglobin combine they form boxy hemoglobin which is unable to carry oxygen, which leads to decreased oxygen delivery to the fetus and fetal hypoxia. Nicotine has cardiovascular and central nervous system effects. Nicotine is known to cross the placental barrier causing levels in the amniotic fluid and fetus 15% higher than the mother. The effects of cigarettes can remain with the fetus the rest of their lives. Ranging from

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases and recognized as a growing public health concern. Exposure to tobacco smoke either through active smoking or by secondhand smoke can cause and/or exacerbate an asthma attack or asthma symptoms (Californian Environmental Protection Agency [Cal EPA, 2006]). In a person with asthma, exposure to cigarette smoke can initiate and worsens asthma by irritating the airways to cause asthma symptoms (World Health Organization [WHO, 2010]). The impact of Asthma is not limited to those with the disease, but also affect their family members, friends, schools and businesses (WHO, 2010).

Although, a majority of smokers are aware of the negative health implications of smoking, they continue the lifestyle. These women do not want to deal with the physiological, psychological, and emotional changes of smoking cessation. Some mothers may not smoke during pregnancy but may pick up the habit after pregnancy, which is detrimental to the health of their child. Second-hand smoking, also known as passive smoking, causes cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, sudden infant death syndrome, and asthma (CDC, 2014). Since 1964, there have been 2.5 million deaths that were a result of secondhand smoke (CDC, 2014). According to the American Cancer Society (2015), passive smokers are exposed to far more chemicals and toxins than the primary smoker due to the cigarette filter that only the primary smoker benefits from (American Cancer Society, 2015). This individual will be screened out of the MIST program until she has made the

Exposure to second hand smoke, also called involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers breathe in the cigarette smoke from others around them. Second hand smoke is harmful to both pregnant women and infants (NTP). Paternal smoking reduces birth weight by about 2 oz. (Berger 115). After birth, babies exposed to cigarette smoke may experience more colds, lung problems, and even ear infections.

Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, causing many diseases, and reducing the overall health of an individual (Lidia Arcavi & Neal L. Benowitz, 2004). The effects of smoking start out in the respiratory system where smoke irritates the trachea and larynx which leads to reduced lung function and breathlessness due to swelling and narrowing of the lung airways, and also leads to excess mucus in the lung passages. The excess mucus causes impairment of the lungs' clearance system leading to the build-up of poisonous substances which results in lung irritation and damage, increased risk of lung infection, symptoms such as coughing and wheezing, and permanent damage to the air sacs of the lungs (Lidia Arcavi & Neal L. Benowitz, 2004).

Another form of smoking is passive smoking, also known as involuntary smoking. Passive smoking is when someone inhales the mixture of smoke that comes from the burning end of tobacco products, such as a cigarette, and is also the smoke exhaled by a smoker. This mixture of smoke is called “environmental smoke.” Environmental smoke contains more than 4,000 harmful substances and 40 of them are known to cause cancer. Although environmental smoke seems like less of a risk than mainstream smoke, which is inhaled by an active smoker, many of the substances are the same harmful toxins. In 1986, the National Research Council and also the Surgeon General announced that environmental smoke can cause lung cancer in non-smokers and also increase your risk for respiratory problems and decrease lung function in children of smoker parents. Also, in 1992, the EPA

Negative effects such as preterm placental abruption, hypertension, premature delivery and miscarriage have been linked to the use of nicotine (p.68). It was found that the child’s cognitive and behavioral development were impaired by the use of these drugs during the time of growth. Even the child’s external behavior was effected causing problems such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) because of maternal smoking (p.69). Medical secondary findings for the study population showed that children of smoking mothers had a significantly lower birth weight and at high risk of respiratory disease. The data received from this study is similar to other groups which makes it easy to assume that it is

A recent study has shown the the toxic chemical, nicotine, can pass from the air or smoky clothes into our bloodstream from our skin. Secondhand smoke particles can linger in a room and on clothes for hours. This means that if your are in a room where someone is smoking or vaping, then you’re absorbing the smoke and nicotine through your skin, as well as your lungs. This can cause illness especially for kids and teens, because nicotine is toxic. It has been used as a pesticide and many times it can kill or sicken people that are exposed to too much of it. Researches did a study and sat in a room full of tobacco smoke but breathed clean air and when their urine was tested it had 570 micrograms of nicotine or about 5 cigarettes worth. The same