Little known facts about the health consequences of
being exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke
Do you remember being told by the tobacco industry that exposure to
tobacco smoke will not adversely affect your health?
For those that do not believe tobacco use is dangerous, consider that
approximately four million people die every year worldwide from the result of
smoking. Sadly, tobacco use is responsible for close to one in five deaths, and
in the United States, takes the life of more than 400,000 people every year.
Now, add in the fact that 47% of men smoke and 12% of women smoke – together,
they have inhaled over six trillion cigarettes every year! Of those, 600 billion
are just in the United States.
This cigarette is “killer”…
The problem with secondhand smoke is that a myth exists that this is not
dangerous. On the contrary, secondhand smoke is extremely dangerous,
specifically to children. Consider the unborn baby that has a mother that
smokes. Approximately 400,000 babies are born prematurely every year from
tobacco use. Cigarettes kill 50 Americans per hour; 1,200 a day. Secondhand
smoke also increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, and irritation to the
eyes, lungs, and skin. Approximately 62,000 Americans die every year from heart
disease that was caused by secondhand smoke. Since tobacco contains 69
carcinogens (chemicals that are known to cause cancer), the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has classified secondhand smoke as “dangerous”. Tobacco
kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires, and auto accidents
combined. 1 in every 5 deaths is directly linked to tobacco. In fact, the levels
of deadly carbon monoxide concentration levels in a room where a cigar party had
been held or in a cigar banquet room at a restaurant are comparable to carbon
monoxide levels on a rush hour freeway in Los Angeles, California.
Think about this for a bit – 88% of people that do not smoke in the United
States have nicotine in their bloodstream, which is an indicator of being
exposed to tobacco smoke, actually, 50,000 non-smokers die from secondhand smoke
each year in America alone. These people are innocent bystanders, having done
nothing but inhale the secondhand smoke from other people smoking tobacco.
Because of the dangerous chemicals in tobacco, people exposed to secondhand
smoke can develop lung cancer and heart disease, have babies with low birth
weight, and even have children die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Cigarettes contain urea, a chemical found in pee, added ammonia, to heighten the
amount of addictive nicotine, benzene, carbon monoxide, arsenic, the radioactive
isotope Polonium-210, and cyanide.
Other Health Risks Associated with Secondhand Smoke are asthma,
bronchitis and a lowered immune system.
In addition to the above mentioned risks, there are others. For example,
children are at the highest risk simply because they are small and their bodies
are vulnerable. When asked how infants can escape the exposure to secondhand
smoke, a cigarette company executive said in 1996 “at some point they begin to
crawl.” In this case, children will often have to deal with asthma, bronchitis,
wheezing, coughing, and an increase in the production of mucus. Additionally,
children under the age of 18 months that are exposed to secondhand smoke will
have an increase in cases of middle ear infection from fluid buildup, not to
mention SIDS. Many know someone who has lost a child “in its sleep” due to SIDS.
Secondhand cigarette smoke is the leading known cause of SIDS.
The bottom line is that tobacco use poses serious health risks to the individual
smoking and to the people having to breathe in the secondhand smoke. Therefore,
the myth about tobacco use being safe is absolutely untrue. Smoking and
secondhand smoke both kill – that is a fact!
Most information was provided by www.TheTruth.com and obtained from the EPA,
www.cancer.org and American Lung Association websites.
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.
