Second Hand Smoke Effects

This article argues that secondhand smoke is just as harmful as smoking. Nonsmokers in smoking environments take in multiple times more smoke than normal consumption, ultimately leading to lung cancer and health problems in people who do not smoke. Also, nonsmokers can actually become addicted to smoke and acquire the habits of smokers around them. Therefore nonsmokers and

Imagine yourself sitting down to dinner at a restaurant. You are sitting down trying to enjoy your dinner when all you can smell is smoke. Not only are you just breathing in the smoke, it is also damaging your body at the same time. Or imagine yourself at your work place, whether it be a restaurant or office, and you are forced to breathe in second-hand smoke the entire time you are there. In this paper you will be informed of the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, and why smoking should be banned from all public places.

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

When people grow up in a smoking household, they are exposed to secondhand smoke (WHO, 2016). Secondhand smoke can also affect health outside of the home, as over 90 percent of the world’s population does not have full coverage on smoke-free public health actions. Second hand smoke exposure affects a third of the world and is most common in households, contributing to pulmonary complications and over half a million deaths yearly (WHO, 2016). Most children do not have a choice of growing up in a household that is smoke-free, especially when their parents have been smoking before they were born. The long term exposure of living in a poor quality smoking household impacts an individual’s health, without them having any other housing option.

Not only does secondhand smoke harm people physically, public smoking is an extremely negative influence for child development and the development of the world as a whole. Around six thousand students in the country of Africa were included in the Global Youth Tobacco Survey to get an overall understanding to how many non-smoking adolescents (11-18 yrs) are around the harsh chemicals of SHS. The survey concluded that 34.2% of the students were exposed to SHS outside of the home. The amount of students already affected with the health consequences of cigarette smoke is wistfully significant.

Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in the world. In the US, it causes about 480,000 deaths per year, and about 42,000 deaths from secondhand smoke (“Smoking and Tobacco...”). Young children are particularly vulnerable to exposure to secondhand smoke when they live with parents or guardians that smoke. Children that are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke get sick more often, have more lung infections, are more likely to cough, wheeze, and have shortness of breath, and get more ear infections (“Health Risks of...”). It would be a benefit to our society if we banned smoking in the presence of children to help prevent the risk of health problems and death related to secondhand smoke.

Cigarette smoking is one of the greatest health risks to the human population. Toxic to both smokers and nonsmokers, smoking has developed a new threat, thirdhand smoke (THS), which is the accumulation of secondhand smoke (SHS) on surfaces, becoming more toxic as it ages over time. This study attempts to study the threat of THS on children and others in environments where smoking has occurred by investigating the effects of THS on liver and lung function, skin healing, and behavior in mice exposed to THS under conditions similar to human exposure. The exposed mice excreted levels of NNAL similar to those found in children exposed to SHS. In liver, THS increased lipid levels and resulted in non-alcoholic fatty disease. In lungs, it stimulated high levels of inflammatory cytokines, possible precursors to fibrosis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. THS exposed mice exhibited poor healing capabilities were hyperactive. These results and implications

Secondhand smoke is unhealthy for everyone, especially for young children. Children are more susceptible to suffer the detrimental health effects of secondhand smoke because they breathe in more air than adults due to their size and weight. In addition, children are constantly growing and developing. During their development stage, children are more sensitive to the consequences of secondhand smoke, which is ultimately dangerous to their immune and respiratory systems. Furthermore, secondhand smoke is significantly harmful to children with asthma, which is a chronic health condition whose symptoms include coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Children, both with and without asthma, are powerless to protect themselves from the dangers of secondhand smoke, so we the adults have to protect them.

Coughing, wheezing, and faint cries of an infant; all are sounds of children affected by their parents’ terrible habit: smoking. Secondhand smoke affects everyone nearby, everyone breathes in those horrible chemicals found in cigarettes. What a smoker does to themselves is a personal matter, but what they do to a non-smoker is different. New laws in Texas can help protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, as well as the harmful effects it causes. Secondhand smoke has many classifications, a well known term being Environmental Tobacco Smoke or ETS. There are two compounds of secondhand smoke; one is side-stream smoke. Side-stream smoke or SS smoke is the smoke coming from the lighted end of a cigarette. The second is mainstream smoke. Mainstream smoke is the smoke which is exhaled by the smoker. Side-stream smoke is the more harmful of the two because of the high level of carcinogens it contains. Carcinogens are known to be the cancer causing agent in humans. Side-stream smoke also has smaller particles than its counterpart, making a bystanders lungs and cells easy access for the smoke to enter. The more of this smoke, we breathe, the more harmful chemicals enter our body. Passive or involuntary smoking is when a non-smoker is exposed to secondhand smoke. A smoker and non-smoker take the smoke in through the same path (“Secondhand Smoke”). As we continue to find out more about the risks of secondhand smoke restrictions in public places is becoming more accepted in the United

Secondhand smoke exposure has negative health consequences. One health consequence is that secondhand smoke exposure can lead to disease and premature death. Another health consequence of secondhand smoke exposure causes illness in women, infants, and children such as “low-birth weight, premature labor, SIDS, asthma, respiratory illness, physical and behavioral problems” (Corbin, Welk, Corbin & Welk, 2016). Furthermore, secondhand smoke exposure also negatively impacts one’s mental health by fostering addictive and depressive behaviors. Therefore, reducing or eliminating one’s exposure to secondhand exposure can increase one’s overall health and life expectancy.

This paper will discuss the effects of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) or known as Second Hand Smoke (SHM) among children. In addition, it will focuses on the how ETS becomes a problem for Children in American household as well as in other well developed nations. It will describe the effects that has among children living in contaminated environment by Second Hand Smoke. One of the health effects can be Asthma, which is provoked by their parents who smoke in their vicinity. Furthermore, there will be a discussion where as a public health practitioner trying to improve the health of these children and to educate their parents to lessen their cigarette consumption near children.

From a personal perspective, my two sons were both diagnosed with asthma as young children; one outgrew it and the other one, now age 23, still has this health condition. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a fact sheet, “Thirdhand smoke: A Threat to Child Health”. This fact sheet outlines the dangers of THS to children, pregnant women (causes low birth rates), and the elderly and even animals. It contains statistical data, dos and don’ts and preventative courses of action for parents, smokers and nonsmokers, to reduce or eliminate exposure to those most vulnerable to the effects of thirdhand smoke.

Visualize a world where no one smoked, now how clean the air would be. Imagine the improvement over humanities overall health. Second hand smoke is smoke inhaled involuntarily from tobacco being smoked by others, which is currently a problem here in the United States. The General Surgeon of the United States Departments of Health and Human Services explains “Secondhand smoke causes approximately 7,330 deaths from lung cancer and 33,950 deaths from heart disease each year” (2014). Many incorporations, not just in the United States, but also all over the world are trying to raise awareness on the negative effects of secondhand smoke and are trying to put an end to smoking in general. In present date companies are trying their best to raise

According to the Center for Disease and Prevention, during the years 2011 and 2012 “about 58 million non smokers in the United States were exposed to second hand smoke” (Center for Disease and Prevention [CDC], 2016). Of these about 15 million were children ages three to eleven (CDC, 2016). Those 15 million children never had the chance to get away from the situation. These statistics do not include the number of infants that were born premature from being exposed to second hand smoke up until the age of 3. However, a study conducted by Yousef S. Khader, and his co-authors, showed that “exposure to SHS during pregnancy was significantly associated with increased odds of low birth rate and preterm delivery (Khader, et al., 2011). This study was conducted just for this purpose to prove that there was a uniting factor between second hand smoke and developmental problems that started at

Exposure to second hand smoke, which for the purposes of this report will be designated SHS, poses extremely detrimental health risks for any and all individuals who consider themselves non-smokers, especially young children and pregnant women. SHS is estimated to contribute to heart attacks in nonsmokers and causes nearly 53,800 deaths in the United States alone on an annual basis.1 According to the United States Surgeon General’s report from 2010, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in this country, causing approximately 443,000 adult deaths from smoking-related illnesses each year.2 Additionally, smoking has been