How passive smoking hurts
Last updated: Friday, August 20, 2010 PrintLinda and Ian adore their children. Only the best is good enough for five-year-old Danny and baby Emma. They spend a lot of quality time with them, doing all the things parents would like to do to stimulate their offspring’s intellectual potential.
Linda is a smoker, but restricts her smoking to the living rooms and kitchen. She does not smoke in the car when Danny and Emma are with her and never in the kids’ rooms.
She was shocked when her GP informed her that Danny had already inhaled the equivalent of 102 packets of cigarettes by his fifth birthday because he is living in the same house as a smoking parent. And that both Danny and Emma have an increased risk of asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases due to their exposure to second-hand smoke.
Just in the UK, more than 17 000 children are hospitalised every year due to respiratory problems caused by their exposure to parents' smoke. Yet, a UK survey found that about half of smokers still think that smoking "can't really be all that dangerous".
Even though smoking has been restricted in South African schools, public places, on public transportation, in restaurants and at work, many South Africans are still exposed to second-hand smoke in their homes.
Greater levels of toxic chemicals
Passive, or second-hand, smoke can be described as a combination of smoke from the tip of a burning cigarette (side-stream smoke) and smoke exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke). Nearly 85% of the smoke in a room results from side-stream smoke.
Second-hand smoke contains all the same cancer-causing, toxic chemicals that the smoker inhales, but at greater levels. Tests on tobacco smoke found that side-stream smoke has more tar and other cancer causing chemicals than mainstream smoke, according to the Cancer Association of South Africa.
Second-hand smoke contaminants that lurk in household dust and on furniture can expose children to levels that are equivalent to several hours of active smoking.
A recent American study found that the children of parents who step outside for a smoke are still exposed to the harmful effects of passive smoking. These children had eight times more nicotine in their bodies than those whose parents didn't smoke.
No-smoking rooms in restaurants do not effectively protect against passive smoking either.
An Australian study found that there is little difference in levels of atmospheric nicotine and particulate matter between separate no-smoking rooms and designated no-smoking areas. At the most, these rooms halve levels of second-hand smoke, which is much less than non-smokers might reasonably expect.
Passive smoking could have a direct and immediate impact on quality of life, by causing eye irritation, headache, cough, sore throat, dizziness and nausea. Long-term exposure has been linked to asthma, heart disease, lung cancer, infertility, impotence and tooth decay. A closer look reveals interesting facts.
Dangers to asthma sufferers
Passive smoking is particularly harmful to people who suffer from asthma, as it damages the tiny hair-like structures in the airways called cilia. Cilia play an important role in ridding the airways of dust and mucus. Smoke also causes the lungs to produce more mucus than normal.
Asthma sufferers who are exposed to second-hand smoke are more inclined to suffer from wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. Children are especially at risk as their airways are more compact and the side effects of passive smoking affect them faster.
Second-hand smoke has also been linked to a number of other respiratory health problems, including pneumonia, sinus infection and impaired lung function. A study found that in households where both parents smoke, children have a 72 percent increased risk of respiratory illnesses.
Damage to the heart
As little as 30 minutes of exposure to second-hand smoke can damage a non-smoker's heart and increases the risk of heart disease by 30%.
The toxins exhaled by smokers cause decreased oxygen to the heart, increased blood pressure and heart rate, increased blood clotting and damage to the cells that line coronary arteries and other blood vessels.
A Japanese study found that side-stream and mainstream smoke had almost no effect on the hearts of people who regularly smoked, since smoking had already lowered the function of their hearts. However, short-term exposure to passive cigarette smoke had a significant impact on the hearts of non-smokers.
Cancer risks
Several studies have indicated that secondary smoke can cause lung cancer in non-smoking spouses of heavy smokers as well as in non-smokers exposed to smoking in the workplace.
A comprehensive study found that non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke had a lung-cancer risk 18 to 32 percent higher than those not exposed, with risks increasing proportionate to the length of exposure. It is estimated that a woman who has never smoked has a 24% greater risk of lung cancer if she lives with a smoker.
Second-hand smoke seems to stimulate tumour growth and angiogenesis, the abnormal formation of new blood vessels thought to encourage cancer growth by providing small tumours with the blood supply they need in order to thrive and spread.
Passive smoking linked to impotence, infertility
Middle-aged men who are heavily exposed to second-hand smoke have nearly twice the risk of impotence as those who breathe fresh air, research shows.
Being around a smoker can also significantly reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant. An aspirant dad who smokes 20 cigarettes or more per day cuts his partner's chance of successful conception by 34%.
A woman who smokes and is exposed to others' smoke can be expected to have the greatest delays in trying to become pregnant, according to British research. – (Carine van Rooyen, Health24 January 2009)
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Your Comments
Beyond ridiculous
The extremes reached by this crusade against cigarette smoking never ceases to amaze me. Most of the people " studied" live in environments saturated with all sorts of chemicals much worse than cigarette smoke - vehicle's exhaust's fumes, industrial smoke and many others. However, its cigarettes that gets the blame for all their health problems. How can passive smoking, on an open environment, be isolated against all other cancers of the 21st century??? I call it bull****!
explain this
my uncle has been smoking for more than 40 years. he used to smoke in front of us and his kids since we were toddlers. None of us smoke, none of us got cancer,asma or any of the crap mentioned above.He himself is as strong as an ox and he is in his early 70s.
@ Baffled
You sir fall into the 50% of smokers who don't realise the harm your habit does to others. What a typical addict response: You don't like hearing the harm you do to others. You don't understand the science behind it. So you reject it, deny it, and get aggressive towards anyone who tries to help you " see the light" . This is exactly why we need strict laws to punish smokers who do not comply with the law - because collectively you are incapable and/or to do so of your own volition.
@ zed
Its called statistics: not everyone who smokes or is exposed to cigarette smoke will be harmed in equal measure. Just like not everyone shot or stabbed dies. Just because you haven't suffered any health issues yet doesn't mean you won't. Just because you and a few other people you know haven't suffered any severe problems due to cigarette smoke does not mean that thousands of other people won't. Even if only 1 in 100 people exposed to second hand smoke got sick this would still be unacceptable.
Mr. Savage,,,
,,,you clearly do not smoke and are disgusted by the habit. Have a look at Moscow in the last month, look at China, look at India, check out the states.
The pollution by Industry is doing a lot more damage than you can possibly imagine to everyones health.
I bet you climb on a plane and fly to business meetings or visit relatives? How much pollution do you think that one flight generates?
With all due respect Mr. Savage, please sit down and pass me my ciggies.
Parents
White parents seriously need to stop smoking with their little kids in the cars. It's disgusting to see that. You never see black parents doing that. Sies!!!
Smokers
I'm continually surprised by the stupidity of smokers.
@Badger
Hi Mr. Badger
If the other pollutants are to blame, how do you explain the very notable decreases in hospital admissions and health issues in areas directly after instituting a public smoking ban?
-|-//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban#Effects_on_health
Smoking
Both my parents smoked and I experienced a childhood from hell with repeated bronchitis attacks etc. I have never smoked but I am still prone to chest infections.
more anti smoker whinging
Non-smokers need to take a chill pill
My solution
My solution to the smoking issue is not less cigarettes - but more cigarettes for the right people. Idiots nowadays who don't see that inhaling hundreds of cancer causing chemicals into their bodies is going to harm themselves and others are nominating themselves for a Darwin Award. Visit any ICU ward in any major centre and find out how stylish and satisfying emphysemia looks. If the craving for nicotine doesn't go away, do us all all a favour and light up where we can't smell it
Let them drown...
SA is a democratic country and I fully defend the rights of rbgguy, Baffled, Savage, et al, to drown in their own lung fluids in an oxygen tent due to emphysema, or to collapse with a heart attack, or to OD on morphine to escape the misery of their cancer. However, I also wish to excercise my right NOT to suffer these unpleasant deaths. We are not talking anecdote or the opinions of Big Tobacco here - there is 50 years of science to back what this article says. Full stop.
To the ones who know everything
To LSavage, Bob, WTF and others who know the all truth and saw the light - do you really believe that in a world with no cigarettes respiratory deseases would disapear??? It's the extremism and radicalism of your reactions that is really scary. " Let them die, drowning in their lung fluids in an oxygen tent" kind of crap that defines you. WTF is so arrogant that even attacks LSavage, who sounds like a non-smoker. Get a life!
Disgusting behaviour!
Smokers disgust me. The most pathetic behaviour I have seen: While driving through Centurion I saw two women driving and smoking, one with 2 kids in the car and the other with one. Do they have an idea of what their tobacco smoke is doing to those helpless children? Not to mention the selfish morons that are smoking around me everywhere I go. The complexes are worse. I wish these THINGS would be forced to live in some isolated areas away from us, where they can commit their suicide alone
stfu everyone with out a medical degree
if you don't have any knowledge of medicine then how can any of you commentators give a knowledgeable opinion whether or not these study's are true. stupid people need to stop whining about people with a different opinion to their own
Smoking
As one who has lung and heart desease and who does not smoke. The only time that I was correctly questioned was when I was ill in Peru. The smoking question was the last on the list. They looked at the chemical I used, where I worked etc. They even asked if I had used or been in an enviroment where Cynate catalisers were used. SA Docs have two questions Do you smoke ?. Does anyone in your family smoke. If you say Yes the answer is predictable. I say this story is poppy -|- by vested interest
@ Badger
Apt name given that smokers tend to force their habit on everyone around them. My problem with your response is that you are trying to deflect onto other issues without accepting responsibility for your habit and the harm it does to other people. Yes their are lots of different types of pollution out there, many of which are harmful, but the proven facts are that the health problems caused by second hand cigarette smoke are substantially more significant than all the other stuff combined.
Where I stand wrt smokers rights
For the record I fully support the right of any individual to chose whether to smoke or not. But smokers also need to be responsible with their habit. What that means is that non smokers should not be exposed to your second hand smoke. Unless I am in a dedicated smoking area, if I can smell your cigarette smoke, you are being an inconsiderate prick who is damaging my health. Period.
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