what is second hand smoke?

Answer 1

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.

Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen). 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. 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.
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. Non-nsmokers 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. 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. Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers. 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. 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).
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. 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. Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma. 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. Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood. 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. 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.

Answer 2

After or during someone is smoking a cirarette the smoke that they puff out or that the cigarette releases is all second hand smole. A lot of studies have tested it more harmful that just smoking a cigarette. But if you smoke you get both first and second hand smoke.

Answer 3

2 types, first is what is called passive smoking, that's basically inhaling the smoke smokers exhale by smoking cigarettes. The second is the smoke you get that hangs around in the air after say a bushfire. Passive smoking as it now known is considered more harmful that smoking itself. As for the other, it makes people gag, wheeze, cough, choke, yep, can't be good!

Answer 4

second hand smoke is when someone smokes near you,you inhale it in too even if your not the one smoking you may become ill an get tha same effects as the one smoking or you may get use to the smell an enjoy an an probably start smoking as well

Answer 5

Second hand smoke is the smoke you are breathing from someone else smoking.

Answer 6

The smoke that surrounds a person smoking a cigarette or cigar. Even though they are the ones smoking, if you are near them, you are inhaling some of the smoke as well.

Answer 7

where you're not the one smoking but, someone else is, you inhale whatever that person is smoking but they if they are smoking a certain brand, have a filter on the cigerette, you on the other hand dont, meaning you'll inhale more toxic stuff than the person smoking

not only smells bad but hurts you apprently

Answer 8

The smoke inhaled from a person who is smoking around you.

Answer 9

It is when either the smoker or another non-smoker inhail the exhaust or excess from a cigarette unfiltered.

You get second hand smoke from your own cigarette, especially if smoking indoors.

Answer 10

Smoke inhaled by people who are around people who have exhaled smoke.

Answer 11

smoke that someone has inhaled, then exhaled into the air, then if inhaled for a 2nd time becomes 2nd hand smoke.