Second hand Smoking
May 4th, 2008 | By quitsmoking-review | Category: Environment
Also known as passive smoking, involuntary smoking or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), it literally means breathing other people’s smoke. It is a result of burning tobacco products and is generally divided into two forms of smoke: “sidestream” smoke which the smoke trailing from the burning tip of a cigarette and “mainstream” smoke that is exhaled by the smoker.
What does second-hand smoke contain?
It has over 4000 chemicals and includes toxic substances found in paint thinners, car fumes, rat poison, toilet cleaner and even fart, such as hydrogen cyanide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. It also contains carcinogens (cancer causing) such as arsenic, chromium, nitrosamines, and benzo(a)pyrene. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified secondhand smoke as a “class A” carcinogen for which there is no safe level of exposure.
Does second-hand smoke affect the health of non-smokers?
Yes. Non-smokers who breathe second-hand smoke suffer many of the diseases found in smokers. Heart and lung disease are prevalent. Many of the effects are found here and it effects everyone from unborn babies to octagenarians.
How big a problem is second-hand smoke?
It is an deep rooted problem in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries where the majority of cigarettes are smoked and in places where public bans have nor or cannot be enforced, like in China. One survey estimated that 79 percent of Europeans over age 15 were exposed to second-hand smoke. Recent data from South Africa shows that 64 percent of children below age five in Soweto live with at least one smoker in the house. The Cancer Society of New Zealand reports that that second-hand smoke is the 3rd largest killer in the country, after active smoking and alcohol use.
I didn’t realize that second hand smoke was that bad and even causes cancer. “class A”? That must be bad. It can’t be true that breathing in other smoker’s fume is worse than smoking itself, can it?
It can’t be worse then first hand smoke becoz the smokers already become a filter for us and most of the poisons have already been absorbed by their lungs