Do YOU Know Anyone that Died of "Second Hand Smoke"?

Question

seriously,
where it was specifically listed as THE cause of death on there death certificate.

The Key word here is,
"Second Hand Smoke"
they say
60,000. people die of it every year.

Answer 1

Cipher is correct on that point...
but as far as second hand cigarette smoke goes....it has already been debunked as B.S.
http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/second.htm

Answer 2

I personally know of no incidences listing the direct cause of death as "Second hand smoke."

Much of the "scientific work" which supports the concept of second hand smoke as a major health hazard seems to be burdened with experimenters who have a bone to pick with smokers. They are not unbiased.

Automobile exhaust and even human flatulence contain higher concentrations of toxic compounds and I do not hear people complaining about either as a major health problem to the same extent.

There is some evidence that more people are hospitalized every year because they were sat on by a fat woman than those who are overcome from second hand smoke.

Realize that this is a battle of freedoms. The smokers have lost.

Answer 3

I was told that my neighbor did. Her husband and son both smoked a LOT. They said the Dr. told them that is why she died. They both quit smoking when she died. A lot of good that did! I didn't see the death certificate, but they believed what the Dr. said. The death certificate would most likely say lung cancer, but that had to be caused by something.

Answer 4

Personally I do know of 2 people who have died as a result of lung cancer and who never smoked in their lives but lived umongst those that did.

On a celebrity basis, Chritopher Reeve's widow Dana, succumbed to lung cancer last year and she herself did not smoke.

Of course, just because one dies of lung cancer, doesn't mean that cigarette smoke was the cause but as we all know, it certainly doesn't help matters to be around it.

If you're looking for support for a habit of smoking and claiming that cigarette smoke does not attribute to second hand smoke causing cancer, you won't get any support from me in that regards.

Polutants in the air are in all essence, the cause for breathing and respritory problems in varying individuals and for that matter, nobody is immune from the effects that pollutants do to the health of individuals.

Lessening your exposure to all forms of pollutants regardless of whether they are caused by tobacco or any other matter is always in one's health interest.

Denying such, is merely a self imposed defense against a nasty habit that indeed kills.

Answer 5

Coroner's fail to differetiate between the type of smoke inhaled. It is listed as "asphyxia due to smoke inhalation." And yes, firemen do die of it, people in house fires die of it long before they are consumed by the fire.

Answer 6

My grandmother died from cancer of the throat and she never smoked but my gradfather smoked around her the whole of their married life...I'm sure it didn't say that on the death cretificate, perhaps it should have

Answer 7

My grandfather was accepted into a local hospital three days ago because he couldn't breath. He is currently awaiting death, in critical condition, because my grandmother had smoked around him for 40 + years. =*(

Answer 8

I think second hand smoke is as serious as (first hand smoke).

Answer 9

Nope.

Answer 10

Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet
August 2006

Secondhand smoke, also know as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can cause or exacerbate a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma.1

Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).2
Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.3
Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.4
A study found that nonsmokers exposed to environmental smoke were 25 percent more likely to have coronary heart diseases compared to nonsmokers not exposed to smoke.5
Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of ETS in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.6
Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah to 48.7 percent in Nevada.7 Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.8
Currently, 14 states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have already passed strong smoke-free air laws.9
As of 2005, nine smoke-free states prohibit smoking in almost all workplaces, including restaurants and bars (CA, CT, DE, ME, MA, NY, RI, VT and WA).10
Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.11
Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits per year.12 Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma.13
In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of, children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis.14 Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood.15
New research indicates that private research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that secondhand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed the finding during the next two decades.16
The current Surgeon General's Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to second hand smoke. Short exposures to second hand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.17
For more information on secondhand smoke, please review the Tobacco Morbidity and Mortality Trend Report as well as our Lung Disease Data publication in the Data and Statistics section of our website, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).