The Effects of Second Hand Smoke
Did you know that 3,000 American non-smokers will die this year from lung cancer? Those deaths are entirely preventable. Their lung cancer is caused by second hand smoke. Second hand smoke is smoke they have breathed in from other people's cigarettes. It is also known as involuntary or passive smoking. There is nothing passive however about the effects of this smoke. It is lethal and it is dangerous. It may give as many as 300,000 children under the age of one and half bronchitis and pneumonia. It could even be responsible for more than 35,000 deaths from heart disease.
Smoking causes lung cancer. This fact is indisputable. What is sometimes disputed is the extent to which the smoke from other
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As a carcinogen, tobacco smoke ranks alongside other cancer causing agents such as asbestos, arsenic, benzene and radon gas. Tobacco smoke is full of carbon monoxide. This is a poisonous gas that inhibits the transportation of oxygen to the body's vital organs.
Coming out of the tip of someone else's cigarette are double the concentrations of nicotine. There are three times the amount of the carcinogen benzo (a) pyrene, five times the amount of carbon monoxide and fifty times the amount of ammonia. On top of this the person quietly puffing away next to you is allowing arsenic, formaldehyde, vinyl chloride and hydrogen cyanide into the air that you are breathing. In despite of this knowledge 43% of children in the US are exposed to second hand smoke in their own homes. Despite the attempts of many places to ban smoking there are still millions of people, who are at risk from the effects of second hand smoke. Many of these will die prematurely.
It is perhaps though in children that we see the most alarming effects of the exposure to second hand smoke. Children's lungs are still developing at their young age. Exposure to second hand smoke means they will have a decreased lung function. A child's airways are also smaller. This means a child will have to breath faster. The result is a child will breath in comparatively more of the poisonous chemicals than an adult in the same room.
Exposure of children to second hand smoke leads to an
Every year, there are over 400,000 smoking-related deaths in the United States. A large percentage of these are due to lung cancer, whose leading cause is smoking. However, not all deaths are smokers themselves. Anyone in the vicinity can fall victim to second hand smoke. These people, through no action of their own, can have their lives threatened.
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
Secondhand smoke is a volatile air pollutant that poses health risks for anyone nearby. It places children at risk for developing issues like asthma, ear and respiratory infections, and even cancer, while increasing the more obvious risks of cancer, heart disease, and stroke for the smoker.
Smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of death in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, which are nearly one in five deaths. The problem about smoking is that not only the smokers are affected by the smoke, but non-smokers and children who are exposed to the secondhand smoke; secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is smoke from burning tobacco products that can be inhaled from the exhaled smoke by the smoker, mainstream smoke, or sidestream smoke, which is the smoke that comes from a lighted cigar, cigarette, or pipe and is more toxic and dangerous than the smoke that comes from the
Second hand smoke can be a problem at work, in public places, at home, and in the car (Winstanley & Ford, 2008). Second hand smoke is when non-smokers breathe in nicotine and toxic chemicals the same way smokers do (Winstanley & Ford, 2008). The more second hand smoke an individual breathes in, the higher the levels of these harmful chemicals that will start to build up in their body (Winstanley & Ford, 2008). Second hand smoke is known to increase the chances of a nonsmoking individual to a rate of about 20-30% more likely to develop lung cancer. Some evidence suggests that it might be linked in adults to cancers of the larynx, pharynx, nasal sinuses, brain, bladder, rectum, stomach, and breast (Winstanley & Ford, 2008). Second hand smoke can be harmful in many other ways as well, affecting the heart and blood vessels causing heart disease, and increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in nonsmokers (Winstanley & Ford, 2008). Second hand smoke can also trigger asthma attacks, make asthma symptoms worse, and even cause new cases of asthma in kids who didn't have symptoms before (Winstanley & Ford,
The effects of secondhand smoke on children, more frequent ear infections, more frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory symptoms, respiratory infections, and they are at a greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The effects
There is no debate on the fact that second hand smoke is extremely dangerous to the individual exposed to that harm. Not only does passive smoking cause short term affects such as; dizziness, headache, coughing, wheezing, eye irritation, sore throat, and nausea, but the person also experiences long term affect that might decline their health dramatically. These long term affects consist of the dramatic increase of the risk of lung cancer as well as other lung related issues. The fact that someone else's own selfish actions can so dramatically influence and affect those around them is quite shocking and lurid.
Half of all American children live with a person who smokes and nine million children breathe cigarette smoke frequently. Secondhand smoke is a widely known issue, but little to nothing is being done about it. By the home is one of the most primary places children are exposed to smoke, it means their own family members and loved ones are shortening their lives. Some of the effects secondhand smoke causes on children include: ear infections; more frequent and severe asthma attacks; respiratory symptoms (for example, coughing, sneezing, and shortness of breath); respiratory infections (bronchitis
Children are at greater risk of being exposed to secondhand smoke than adults (CDC, 2004)
Young kids are the most affected by instances of secondhand smoke and are least able to avoid it. Most of their exposure comes from guardians or parents smoking, studies show that children whose parents smoke get sick more often. The children have more cases of lung infections like pneumonia and bronchitis, are more prone to coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath and get more ear infections. Secondhand smoke can cause asthma attacks, worsen asthmatic symptoms or result in new cases of asthma in
Your actions and decisions today can harm your child’s well being later to come. Young children are being affected around the world more and more every day. Second-hand smoke causes major problems in these children. Exposure to second-hand smoke affects 4 out of 10 children around the world. Secondhand smoke puts children at risk for heart disease, breathing difficulties, and possible cavities. Children that are exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher chance to become sick and have these symptoms:
Why is secondhand smoke a problem? Today people do not know all the CONSEQUENCES of smoking. Tobacco companies will continue creating products at all costs, as this is summed up in the word income (profit), they know the damage it does but still in same. Secondhand smoke has the same harmful chemicals that smokers inhale. There’s no safe level of exposure for secondhand smoke. Today there are many theories that secondhand smoke could eventually get cancer without having smoked in your life. The second hand smoke do not realize the potential harm when the air passing when inhaling.
Secondhand smoke has serious negative health consequences. Secondhand smoke causes numerous health problems in infants and children including more frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
The inhalation of tobacco , more commonly known as smoking tobacco is one of the leading factors of cancer causing more than 20% of global cancer deaths and approximately 70% of the worldwide lung cancer deaths.
It is estimated that 36.5 million adults smoke in the United States of America (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention B). A cigarette contains 7,000 chemicals and 70 of those can cause cancer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention B). When someone decides to smoke a cigarette, they are not only choosing to allow those toxins into their body but are imposing all those same toxins on anyone around them. Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers and is considered more dangerous then smoking the cigarette (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention B). Every year 480,000 people in the United States of America die because of cigarette smoking, which is the leading cause of preventable disease and death. Why has this deadly habit become such a casual part of the American life? This habit is not only harmful to the person smoking, but is hurting everyone around them. It may be their decision to smoke and cause damage to their own bodies but when they decide to smoke in public they are infringing on the rights of everyone around them right to protect their health. Smoking should be made illegal because it is not only harmful to the smokers but also causes harm to fetuses in utero, developing children and any other adults who may breathe that smoke in.