how many non-smokers die of exposure to second hand smoke?

Answer 1

according to this website:

http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/secondhandsmoke/a/secondhandsmoke.htm



3000 nonsmokers die every year from lung cancer caused by ETS (environmental tobacco smoke, or second hand smoke)

Answer 2

"I read that in only one hour, your arteries harden and blood thickens and the cilia in your lungs are damaged.", this happens around cars, cold weather, stress, and a ton of other things that happen every day in life. The 'system' want to scare the living day lights out of you so they can scape goat all the smokers into quitting so the pharmaceutical industry can make the loads of money the tobacco industry has been making. Next time you do your research look for 'Actual case studies about second hand smoke', learn to do statistics and learn what epidemiology studies are. For example when you do this, you will find secondhand smoke in it's worst case studies show a RR (relative risk) of 1.19, while drinking cow milk has an RR of 2.6.... At the end of your research you'll have a whole new scare --- 'conspiracy theory' about our health officials and how they lie and manipulate us everyday, mostly on health concerns.

Answer 3

Nobody knows. There are all manner of wildly conflicting, emotion-laden guesses - from 3,000 per year to 60,000 per year. . . but the basic fact of the matter is, nobody knows.

The increased health risk to a nonsmoker who lives with a smoker is 0.002% - workplace exposure reduces that to a mere 0.0007%, according to EPA data.

As to lung cancer: since the 1960s, smoking has been reduced by half. . . but there has been no corresponding reduction in lung cancer rates - men get lung cancer at rates 2 times what they did in the 60s. . . and women get lung cancer at 3 times the rate - which points to causes of lung cancer other than smoking.

As to heart attacks: One would expect that, were there a connection between smoking and heart disease, that countries with the highest rates of smoking would have the lowest average life expectancies - but the facts do not bear this out.
Many countries, with rates of smoking 3 or more times that of the US, have average life expectancies longer than in the US.
For example - Japan in the 1990s, 59% of males smoked, with an average life expectancy of 76.5 years.
In the US, 18%, 75.96 years.

Answer 4

The real question is how many non smokering people die every year from non smoking related cancer? Then you can make a comparison until you do that you have not got a usable statistic.

Answer 5

I had a friend whose mother never smoked a cigarette, but her Dad smoked 3 packs a day, and her mother died from lung cancer at the ripe old age of 55.

Answer 6

how many smokers die from forcing pot into their lungs full of chemicals and blame cigarette smoke for it?

Answer 7

dont really know the actual numbers but its actually the people exposed to smoking that are more at risk specially pregnant women.

Answer 8

our shcool principal died last year. never smoked one cigerette in her life, but her husband smoked all 40 years of their marriage. she died of lung cancer in less than 4 months of finding it

Answer 9

SOURCE 1:
When a cigarette is smoked, about half of the smoke is inhaled / exhaled (mainstream smoke) by the smoker and the other half floats around in the air(sidestream smoke).

The U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has classified second hand smoke as a Group A carcinogen.

Cancers linked to passive smoking include:

* Lung cancer - 3000 nonsmokers die every year from lung cancer caused by ETS
* Nasal sinus cavity cancer
* Cervical Cancer
* Breast cancer
* Bladder cancer

Some chemical compounds found in smoke only become carcinogenic after they've come into contact with certain enzymes found in many of the tissues of the human body.

The Risks of Second Hand Smoke to a Child

* Low birthweight for gestational age
* Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)- children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy have an increased risk of SIDS.
* The EPA estimates that passive smoking is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 of these infections in children under 18 months annually
* Asthma - According to the EPA, between 200,000 and 1,000,000 kids with asthma have their condition worsened by second hand smoke every year. Also, passive smoking may also be responsible for thousands of new cases of asthma every year
* Chronic respiratory symptoms such as cough and wheezing may be attributed to second hand smoke.
* Children who breathe in second hand smoke are more likely to suffer from dental cavities, eye and nose irritation, and irritability
* Middle ear infections - exposure to ETS causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits yearly

How Second Hand Smoke Can Affect the Heart

* Heart disease mortality - an estimated 35,000 to 62,000 deaths are caused from heart disease in people who are not current smokers, but who are exposed to ETS
* Acute and chronic coronary heart disease
* Passive smoking has been linked to the narrowing of the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain
* Exposure to second hand smoke hastens hardening of the arteries, a condition known as artherosclerosis
* Continual exposure to ETS has been shown to nearly double the chance of heart attack


How Common is Lung Cancer in Non- Smokers?
It is estimated that 10-15% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed in people that have never smoked. Unfortunately, most of these patients are women, and it has become increasingly more common for non-smoking women to be diagnosed with lung cancer. Statistics show that 1 out of 5 women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked, compared to 1 out of 10 men.

How Can Non-Smokers Develop Lung Cancer?
Researchers believe that second hand smoke plays a prominent role in lung cancer development in non-smokers.

Limiting first hand and second hand exposure is essential for both men and women to reducing the risk factor for lung cancer.

Lung cancer can develop because of radon imbedded in dirt below residential homes. Tests are available to check the radon level in and around your home. Many of these tests are available free of charge from you local health department.

Estrogen may also be a factor in lung cancer development, just like in breast cancer development in women. Studies suggest that blocking estrogen may prevent lung cancer from growing.

Genetics may also be responsible for lung cancer development. Researchers have found genes that can greatly increase the risk factor for lung cancer development. This finding may explain why people who smoke 3 packs a day may never develop lung cancer, while one who only smokes 5 a day develops it. It may be a matter of who is carrying this gene.

SOURCE 2:
Secondhand smoke is in the news again, and as legislators decide whether to place even more restrictions on smokers, it might be worthwhile to take a look at some of the objective evidence on this controversial issue.

In a study published in Circulation on May 23, 2005, investigators report that the cardiovascular system of nonsmokers is extremely sensitive to tobacco toxins inhaled during passive smoking. They reached this conclusion by analyzing 29 studies that measured the risk of heart disease in people who never smoked tobacco, but who were exposed to secondhand smoke.

While secondhand smokers only inhale about 1/100th the dose of smoke inhaled by the smokers themselves, the effect of that secondhand smoke is large. Secondhand smokers have a risk of coronary heart disease that is 30% higher than for nonsmokers who are not exposed to secondhand smoke.

In contrast, the risk for actual smokers is increased by 80%. So, while the dose of smoke inhaled by passive smoking is 100 times smaller than for smokers, the increase in risk to the nonsmokers is much, much greater than that. Indeed, their excess risk is almost 40% as high as the excess risk to the smokers themselves.

The investigators further listed the effects that secondhand smoke have been shown to have on the cardiovascular system that can lead to an increase in cardiac disease. These include: making platelets stickier, causing inflammation, reducing HDL cholesterol levels, increasing LDL cholesterol levels, and increasing insulin resistance. Some of these effects can be measured after just a few minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke.

The accumulating and disturbing evidence against secondhand smoke is enough to make even DrRich, an ardent supporter of individual freedoms, hope for even more restrictions on smoking in public places.