Secondhand tobacco smoke
does cause cancer... here is the proof!
Most people in today’s society have heard about secondhand smoke and cancer but,
sadly, the majority of these individuals simply do not believe or refuse to
accept the danger that secondhand smoke causes. The problem is that since 2003,
studies show that the incidences of lung cancer have skyrocketed by 18% to 23%
for spouses of people that smoke. However, to be included in this risk, you do
not have to be married to someone that smokes since secondhand smoke is
dangerous regardless.
What experts have discovered is that long-term exposure to smoking, even passive
smoking, greatly increases the risk of lung cancer. In fact, for people that do
not smoke but work in environments where smoking is still allowed have an
increased risk of up to 25% when it comes to developing lung cancer. That means
25 out of 100 non-smoking people are put at risk of a health problem that can
kill, against their will. For non-smokers in a social setting such as a
nightclub or bar, that number goes up to 26%.
What happens with secondhand smoke is that the burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe
burns carcinogens, or dangerous chemicals. This smoke along with smoke exhaled
by the person smoking goes out into the air that non-smokers breathe. Therefore,
just inhaling the secondhand smoke is enough to cause serious health issues.
Interestingly, more than 10 years ago, the United States
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) stated that secondhand smoke is a “known human
carcinogen”, actually, cigarettes contain 69
KNOWN
cancer causing agents. They
went on to claim that approximately 3,000 people in the United States alone die
every year from secondhand smoke. Sadly, over the past 10 years, those numbers
have dramatically increased. Today, the number of people dying from secondhand
smoke in America is as high as 65,000.
In addition to lung cancer, secondhand smoke causes other types of cancer and
non-cancerous health problems, which includes heart disease. For children, it
has been proven that secondhand smoke is directly related to the development of
asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, respiratory infections, and more.
There are even studies now showing that the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
(SIDS) increases two times from exposure to secondhand smoke.
Keep in mind that while secondhand smoke is directly related to lung and other
types of cancer, it can also exacerbate many different pre-existing conditions
to include allergies, asthma, and so on. Cigarette smoke has been linked to
mouth, throat, esophageal and even bladder cancer. If you consider that tobacco
smoke consists of more than 4,700 chemicals and many of those being human
carcinogens, it is no wonder secondhand smoke is so deadly.
To try to reduce the effects of secondhand smoke, there are now laws in effect
country wide whereby people are limited to where they can smoke. For instance,
while smoking in restaurants, office buildings, and other public buildings was
once commonplace, today you cannot smoke. Although this has helped reduce the
growing number, the bottom line is that more needs to be done to protect
non-smokers from the cancerous risk associated with secondhand smoke.
Feel free to copy this article for publication
as long as the resource box(with links) is left intact.
About the author / resource box:
Dr. Craig Donnelly founded BPA Air Quality Solutions / BreathePureAir.com as a
result of his experience with his patients, many of whom suffered from
allergies, asthma and airborne environmental sensitivities. Having been
diagnosed with asthma himself, Dr. Craig understood about the origin of the
health consequences many of his patients experienced on a daily basis from
breathing contaminated indoor air . BreathePureAir.com specializes in home air
purifiers, commercial air cleaners
and smoke
eaters and industrial air purifiers
solutions.
