How bad is second hand smoke really?

Answer 1

I am a nurse and we are taught that second hand smoke is worse than actually smoking a cigarette yourself. Below is some info and the two web sites you can go to, where you will see more site to get info.

Recent findings led the U.S. Surgeon General to issue a health warning in late June 2006 emphasizing that secondhand smoke is both “toxic and poisonous.” Secondhand smoke contains poisonous gases and chemicals, including carbon monoxide (commonly found in car exhaust), ammonia (used in household cleaners), toluene (found in paint thinners), and hydrogen cyanide (used in chemical weapons). Toxic metals in secondhand smoke include arsenic (used in pesticides), lead (formerly found in paint), chromium (used to make steel), and cadmium (used to make batteries). The Surgeon General’s warning concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke; even short exposure can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, and reduce heart rate variability, which may increase the risk of heart attack.

Cancer is not the only concern: According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 4,000 chemicals have been identified in tobacco smoke – and more than 50 are carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) and six others interfere with normal cell development. Research shows a connection between secondhand smoke and nasal sinus cancer, and possible a connection between secondhand smoke and cancers of the cervix, breast, and bladder. Non-cancerous health conditions caused by secondhand smoke include chronic coughing and wheezing, chest discomfort, decreased lung function, and severe lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia. Women who inhale secondhand smoke may be at risk of preterm labor and delivering a low-birthweight baby.

It only takes five minutes: Most people assume that they must be exposed to secondhand smoke for a long time before it can actually cause harm, but this is not true. According to the Centers for Disease Control, just five minutes of exposure stiffens the aorta as much as smoking a cigarette. Twenty minutes of exposure is equal to smoking a pack a day, for it activates blood platelets involved in the clotting process and increases the risk of heart attack. Thirty minutes of exposure causes stiffened, clogged arteries and compromises the blood’s ability to manage LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. And two hours of exposure can speed up the heart rate and reduce heart rate variability, increasing the chance of an irregular heart beat (arrhythmia) that can itself be fatal or trigger a heart attack. These health effects can take as long as 48 hours to reverse themselves. All of these effects increase the long-term risk of heart disease and the immediate risk of heart attack. A study from the University of California at San Francisco showed disturbing results as well: After being exposed to 15 cigarettes in a closed room for one hour, even healthy men experienced stiffness of the aortic arteries – some after only four minutes.

Nonsmokers can protect themselves: Always request “nonsmoking,” whether it’s a table at a restaurant or a dorm room at college. The Lung Association reports that fourteen 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, already have passed strong smoke-free air laws.


Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet
June 2007

Secondhand smoke, also known 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 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.4
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.5
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.6 Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.7
Fifteen states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont - as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico prohibit smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon and Utah have passed legislation prohibiting smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars, but the laws have not taken full effect yet.8
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 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.9
Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 physician office visits per year.10 Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma.11
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.12 Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood.13
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.14
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.

Hope this helps. If you have an adult who smokes in a home where there are children, the amoker should only smoke outside the house. I hve never allowed smoking in my house. Do not put out ashtrays and people will get the message.

I knew somebody years ago that when someone asked, "Do you mind if I smoke," he would say,"Do you mind if I fart." What he was saying is I do not want to smell the gases you put off just like you would not want to smell mine. Kinda funny.

Answer 2

My folks would smoke like chimney's in a car with us kids in the car during our cross the country drives, and none of us kids didn't get cancer or die because of the second hand smoke. There is no way somebody is going to force me to believe that second hand smoke will kill somebody.
All of these nonsense web sites are just propaganda.

Answer 3

second hand smoke is very bad but it is thought that second hand smoking (passive) is worse than actually smoking it,this is because you are breathing some of the smoke that is on the end which has not been filtered

-jake

Answer 4

SHS is way worse, because you didn't asked for it. I think there was a article in Readers Digest, which said that SHS was worse. I think it was like this: For people who DO NOT smoke, SHS is FIVE TIMES as worse than the FHS for the smoker. Anyway, only anti-social people would smoke somewhere where it could give SHS to non-smokers. Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of millions of those people.

Answer 5

Just because some folks do not get sick does not prove that second hand smoke is not dangerous. I tend to ask myself; Why wouldn't it be dangerous if it sickens and kills smokers by the millions?

Answer 6

It can kill you it can give you emphysema and lung cancer and when tou need a transplant 80% of the time there isn't an available lung for you!
http://www.stopsmokingetc.com/smoking_facts.htm?utm_source=overture&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=effects_of_smoking&utm_campaign=effects_of_smoking

Answer 7

pretty bad

Answer 8

ask any airline attendant with lung cancer. It is deadly.