Deadly Ramifications From Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke is more toxic to bystanders because it hasn't been inhaled and "cleared" by the smoker's lungs. The innocent non-smoker is subjected to side stream smoke which is emitted from the smoker's tobacco. What makes it different is the non-smoker inhales a higher concentration of the small lethal particles.

People who were born from 1930 to 1960 are more likely to have asthma and other respiratory illnesses, due to being born in the "Fashionable Smoking Era." The first report on smoking and health issued by the Surgeon General of the United States came out in 1964. Shortly after that the facts pertaining to secondhand smoke were revealed by reputable scientists and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Non-smokers are more sensitive to smoke because they are not used to it and their lungs have not adapted to the carbon monoxide it generates. There is twice as much nicotine in secondhand smoke, it is classified as a cancer-causing agent and is responsible for 35,000 to 37,000 coronary heart disease deaths. Non-smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke through their families or workplace have lung damage equal to that of people who smoke 1 to 8 cigarettes a day.

Children that are exposed to their parents' smoke will be prone to asthma, bronchitis, colds and pneumonia. Babies of cigarette-smoking women are at risk of suffering developmental failures and are more likely to have a low birth weight.

There are other tragedies that most of us are not aware of.  Did you know...

1 Smokers are responsible for igniting house fires that kill over 2,500 non-smokers in the United States every year,

2 Four thousand secondhand smokers die of lung cancer each year,

3 Chronic lung diseases such as tuberculosis and emphysema account for lung cancers among non-smokers,

4 Secondhand smoke or passive smoking is now the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States?

Remember, it is crucial if you are a non-smoker to keep away from smoke given off by burning tobacco! If you are exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis it is wise to increase your antioxidant nutrient intake. Consumption of foods rich in carotene offers significant benefits.

1 Green leafy vegetables

2 Apricots

3 Carrots

4 Mangoes

5 Yams

6 Peaches

7 Sweet potatoes

Supplementing your diet with Vitamin C and E is highly advisable.

Now that all the evidence is on the table and the crack down on secondhand smoke has begun, the conclusion is for those of us that made the decision not to smoke why should we be dealing with so many ramifications from a deadly habit we never acquired. Perhaps the tobacco companies can answer that question.

Why is Secondhand Smoke a Health Problem?

Secondhand smoke is the smoke that comes from someone else's cigarette, pipe or a cigar. Cigarettes contain 4000 chemicals. So if you are wondering why is secondhand smoke a health problem, it's because not only do these chemicals go into the smoker's body, but when the smoker exhales, the smoker is exposing other people to these chemicals as well.

Some people have died due to secondhand smoke. People who are exposed to second hand smoke the most are at a higher risk of becoming ill. For instance people who have a spouse who smokes indoors or in a vehicle, people who work in bars and restaurants that still allow smoking, and employees of casinos are at a greater risk for getting secondhand smoke illnesses.

Secondhand smoke can be called environmental tobacco smoke and it has been reported to cause illnesses such as heart disease, lung cancer and lung disease. Secondhand smoke can also increase the risk of a child having respiratory disease of a serious nature, the first two years of the child's life that they are exposed.

The smoke that a smoker blows out is called sidestream smoke. It goes into the air and that smoke has noxious compounds. If you are a smoker it's important that you don't smoke in the car when someone else is in the car, and don't smoke in the house exposing the sidestream smoke to cause an illness in one of your loved ones.

If you don't smoke, avoid places where smoking indoors is allowed and make sure your children are not exposed to secondhand smoke as well. It has been reported that over 2,000 deaths from SIDS have been due to sidestream smoke.

The best thing to do is to quit smoking and improve your health and increase your life, and that of other people.

Effects of Secondhand Smoke Can Increase Diabetes Risk Factors

As if you need one more reason to not smoke... or to avoid the effects of secondhand smoke, a groundbreaking study finds that cigarette smoke brings an increased risk of type II diabetes risk factors, for the smoker and for the non smokers around them. The risk goes up with the amount of secondhand smoke you're exposed to.

Researchers tell us that the risks of developing diabetes from secondhand smoke weren't known before, but that these findings reinforce the lesson that you need to limit your exposure.

Tobacco smoke has over 4,000 chemicals, and more than 60% of them are known to cause cancer.

Secondhand smoke is a combination of two forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco - sidestream smoke (from the end of the lighted cigarette, pipe or cigar) and mainstream smoke (exhaled from the smoker's mouth).

It's the sidestream smoke that has higher concentrations of the cancer causing substances than the smoke that comes from the smoker.

For the research experts examined the responses of over one hundred thousand women to questionnaires answered back in 1982.

The subjects were all female, all nurses taking part in a nationwide study known as the Nurses' Health Study that lasted several decades, supplied information on how much exposure they had to cigarette smoke.

Over the following two decades around one in 18 subjects was diagnosed with type II diabetes.

The team discovered that women smokers who smoked over two packets a day were most at risk of developing diabetes. This meant that for each 10,000 subjects in the study, around 30 of the women classed as heavy smokers were diagnosed with diabetes each year, in comparison with around 25 women who didn't smoke, and hadn't been exposed to others cigarette smoke.

The risks were increased for ex-smokers as well as women who were exposed to secondhand smoke. In both groups, around 40 out of 10,000 women were diagnosed with diabetes each year. Once the research team took factors like weight, age and family medical history into account, the women who used to smoke had a 12% increased risk of diabetes in comparison to those who were exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis.

No one is sure why secondhand smoke and type II diabetes might be connected, though inflammation might be a part of the picture.

Type 2 diabetes is the form that normally develops in adults, affecting both men and women equally, and is a chronic condition where the body can't process sugar properly. Sometimes patients can control their condition with diet and exercise, while more advanced disease calls for insulin. Diabetes that goes unmanaged, or poorly managed, brings the risks of many dangerous, life-altering complications.

The researchers believe there's no reason to think the findings would not apply to men because the diabetes risk factors are similar for men and women. Today the danger of the effects of secondhand smoke is well recognized, and federal, state and local authorities are enacting clean indoor air ordinances to protect nonsmokers from health problems, like type 2 diabetes, that may come from exposure to secondhand smoke.

Secondhand Smoke - Is Your Health Being Affected?

Have you ever wondered if your health is being affected by secondhand smoke. Let's look at some of the facts that are now available. Family health is important to us all, protecting ourselves and family members is at the forefront of our minds, it starts with knowing the truth.

It's no longer just guesswork, the research has been done and in many cases the results are quite alarming. They even have a scientific name for it "Environmental tobacco smoke" or ETS, and has now been classified by the environmental protection agency. It's considered a known cancer-causing carcinogen in humans, now that should get your attention if you or any family member is being exposed to any secondhand smoke.

The evidence is know available that secondhand smoke can produce all the health problems that the smokers themselves suffer. Even many smokers themselves don't realize that their habit is compromising the health of their young children in the family home and car.

In the United States alone close to 50,000 deaths in non-smokers are contributed to cancer and heart disease caused by secondhand smoke (ETS), that's a rather frightening statistic. So it's very much in your interest to be aware of the conditions in which you live or work.

What are the risk free levels of secondhand smoke, well there are no risk free levels other than a smoke free environment. The good news is that a lot of the law makers have realised that changes need to be made and are banning smoking from many public places, and the same is applied to the work place of many individuals. But the full effect will not be felt until it is applied across the board in all public places, including public transport, hotels, bars and restaurants etc.

More and more smokers understand the need to go outside away from bystanders and family members, and that's a good thing as the awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke becomes more widely known. It's hard to understand why so many people smoke when the health effects are so widely known these days, but you have to remember that a lot of smokers began when it was a fashionable, cool thing to do. It highly addictive and not an easy habit to break, many are realizing that it makes sense to quit and should be given as much encouragement and help as they need.

Further information on secondhand smoke and help on how to quit smoking is freely available to bring you up to date on this sneaky killer.

Secondhand Smoke At Workplace Increases Lung Cancer Risk

If your co-workers love smoking at the workplace, you better be careful for a new study says that secondhand smoke at the workplace doubles the risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers.

Those who inhale secondhand smoke or in other words indulge in passive smoking are at a 50 percent increased risk of developing lung cancer. The study reviewed 22 previous research initiatives on secondhand smoke in the US, Canada, Europe, India, Japan and China

Inhaling the smoke of other people is called passive, involuntary or secondhand smoking. The non-smoker breathes the so-called "sidestream" smoke, which is leftover after the smoker has inhaled from the burnt tobacco.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified environmental tobacco smoke as a known human cancer-causing agent.

The current study only reinforces this finding. Researchers led by Leslie Stayner of the University of Illinois at Chicago say that the risk of a nonsmoker developing lung cancer increases by 100 percent if he/she is exposed to large amounts of secondhand smoke at the workplace.

"We believe that our study provides the strongest evidence to date that smoking in the workplace does present a substantial risk to workers -- and particularly to workers who are working in highly exposed areas such as bar workers or restaurant workers," Stayner said.

Passive smoking causes some immediate effects like eye irritation, headache, cough, sore throat, dizziness and nausea. Non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke have a 30 percent increased risk of heart disease and a 20 percent to 30 percent increased risk for lung cancer.

Writing in the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers observed that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at the job had a 50 percent increased risk of lung cancer as compared to those not exposed to the smoke.

Furthermore the study found that nonsmokers exposed to any kind of secondhand smoke had a 24 percent increased risk of developing lung cancer.

Most corporate workplaces do have limits on smoking. But people like waiters and waitresses in bars and restaurants that permit smoking are at high risk for developing smoke-related illnesses.

The best example is that of Heather Crowe, a Canadian woman who died of lung cancer in May 2006. A nonsmoker, Ms Crowe worked in restaurants and the inhaled secondhand smoke caused lung cancer leading to her death.

That is why in the US Surgeon General Richard Carmona had called for a ban on public smoking in a hard-hitting report last year. "The science is clear. Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard," Surgeon General Richard Carmona had said. "The debate is over."

Other countries are taking the lead in banning smoking from public places. Starting this week smoking is banned in offices, stores, schools and hospitals in France.

It is estimated that banning smoking in all workplaces in the United States would prevent 1,500 heart attacks and 360 strokes, and would save $49 million in direct medical costs. Around 14 states have banned smoking in workplaces, restaurants or bars since 1994. And 2,000 local governments also restrict smoking in public places

How Secondhand Smoke Affects Your Health

Secondhand smoke, or "passive smoking" as it's also known, has become an increasingly big issue in today's society. According to medical research, secondhand smoke is linked to tobacco-related diseases, and as we place a higher premium on an individual's responsibility to the health of those around him, we have become more and more to discourage smoking in public.

What Is Secondhand Smoke?

"Secondhand smoke" is a term that describes the effects of enough smoke being added to a room that it's impossible for non-smokers to avoid inhaling the smoke themselves. These people become "secondhand smokers" in that they're breathing the fumes that smokers themselves have exhaled, only without the active decision to smoke that has been made by the smokers themselves. According to scientific studies, passive smoking leads to diseases, disabilities, and fatalities comparable to those caused by actual smoking.

Secondhand smoke has long been linked to illness and injury, and since the 1970s, tobacco producers have been concerned about the possible connection. The concern was, and is, that the potential for disease amongst nonsmokers would be enough to rally public support against smoking. Unsurprisingly, the now-confirmed fear of injury to nonsmokers has been enough to pass anti-smoking legislation which has banned smoking in confined public places such as bars, clubs, and restaurants, as well as office buildings. Of particular concern to anti-smoking activists is the health effects on waiters and waitresses in restaurants and bars, who have to work in unsafe environments every day.

Legal Recourse

Because of the many negative effects public smoking has on the health of nonsmokers, it's not surprising that there have been lawsuits against employers and the tobacco industry for indirectly causing the injuries sustained by passive smokers. If you have been the victim of disease and disability as a result of secondhand smoking, you may be entitled to financial compensation. While every case is different, you may want to consider discussing your circumstances with a personal injury lawyer, who can represent your case in court.

It is especially worth considering if you contracted passive smoking-related diseases as a result of your job, as your lawsuit could positively affect other workers as well. Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe work environment for their employees, and they could be in violation of laws.

Secondhand Smoking - How Does it Affect Your Health?

Inhalation of smoke from cigarettes or tobacco products is called passive or secondhand smoking. If you chose not to smoke to live a healthy life, you made the right choice. But you also have to be aware that secondhand smoking is harmful. Yes, studies have proven that secondhand type of smoking can be just as harmful as active smoking.

Smoking causes many types of cancer. This is because tobacco products contain many carcinogenic substances. And once burned, the smoke from tobacco products now contains the carcinogenic substances. Secondhand smoking increases the risk of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30%. Around 3,400 nonsmokers die from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoking.

Constriction of blood vessels is also caused by substances in smoke from tobacco products. This results to diseases like heart disease, atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Secondhand type of smoking increases the risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30%.

Secondhand type of smoking can cause cognitive disease and dementia in adults who are 50 years old and above.

Smoking while pregnant is highly discouraged. This increases the likelihood of a miscarriage and premature birth. And infants borne by smoking mothers are usually low birth weight or small for gestational age. These can lead to other problems like jaundice and breathing difficulties.

Secondhand type of smoking has also been proven to delay child development. Sudden infant death syndrome is also a result of secondhand smoking. In the United States, 430 infants die every year because of sudden infant death syndrome caused by secondhand smoking.

Secondhand type of smoking causes different diseases in children. These can be any of the following: asthma, developmental delay, impaired motor skills, ear diseases, lung diseases, bronchitis, allergies, learning problems, and neurobehavioral disorders.

Smoking in such a way is estimated to kill 53,000 nonsmokers per year! If you are a smoker, consider how much harm you are causing other people. Quit smoking now! If you are a nonsmoker, always see to it that you are not exposed to cigarette smoke. Remember that secondhand type of smoking is just as harmful as active smoking!

Secondhand Smoke May Cause Diabetes

This is for the first time that the researchers have reported a possible link between secondhand smoke and glucose intolerance. BMJ Online First published a study in which it shows an association between tobacco exposure including nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke, and glucose intolerance. However the study does not prove that secondhand smoke causes glucose intolerance.

Thomas Houston, MD, MPH, of Alabama's Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and his colleagues studied more than 4,600 young blacks and whites for 15 years. Current cigarette smokers were most likely to develop glucose intolerance, which was defined as having diabetes or impaired fasting glucose (blood sugar). Having impaired fasting glucose is also referred to as pre-diabetes. Nonsmokers reporting secondhand-smoke exposure came in second, followed by former smokers. Nonsmokers without secondhand-smoke exposure were least likely to develop glucose intolerance, as per the study.

Not only diabetes...second hand smoke is a risk factor to the heart as well. According to a study done by London's St George's Medical School and the Royal Free hospital, passive smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 50-60%. Why would it not harm when secondhand smoke is a toxic cocktail consisting of poisons and carcinogens. There are over 4000 chemical compounds in secondhand smoke; 200 of which are known to be poisonous, and 60 have been identified as carcinogens. The 2006 US Surgeon General's report reached several important conclusions:

Secondhand smoke causes premature death and disease in children and in adults who do not smoke.

Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe asthma. Smoking by parents causes respiratory symptoms and slows lung growth in their children.

Exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer.

The scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

Millions of Americans, both children and adults, are still exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces despite substantial progress in tobacco control.

Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.
Everyone knows, including those who already are smokers, that tobacco in any form is harmful. So, as a smoker or non-smoker, one should provide smoke-free environment at least to his loved ones. Don't you think so?

Secondhand Smoke - The Silent Killer Incognito

The health hazards of exposure to secondhand smoke are well recognized by experts in the healthcare field. Secondhand smoke is that environmental tobacco smoke resulting from burning tobacco. There are two forms of secondhand smoke, mainstream smoke and side stream smoke. Mainstream smoke is that which is exhaled by a smoker. Side stream smoke is the smoke which streams directly from the burning tobacco product. Either form unfortunately is harmful to innocent individuals who involuntarily engage in passive smoking as a result of it the tobacco pollution caused by the willful smoker.

If it were not bad enough that nicotine which is a powerfully addictive substance with harmful health effects is present in secondhand smoke, tobacco also produces more than 4000 chemicals of which 250 are toxic. Worse yet, 50 of the chemicals in secondhand smoke are felt to be carcinogenic or cancer-causing. Some of those carcinogenic chemicals are as follows:

Benzene -- A component of gasoline

Formaldehyde -- A chemical used for embalming corpses

Hydrogen cyanide -- A highly poisonous gas used in chemical weapons

Carbon monoxide - An important gas comprising automobile exhaust

The Surgeon General issued a report in 2006 concluding that secondhand tobacco smoke can kill and that there is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. The report also concluded that the greater the degree of secondhand smoke exposure the greater the health risks.

Some alarming statistics relating to secondhand or passive smoke exposure are as follows:

In the United States alone 126 million people who don't smoke are exposed to passive smoke at home and/or at work.

In the United States 50,000 people per year die because of secondhand smoke exposure.

In the United States approximately 3000 deaths per year occur because of lung disease in non-smokers caused by passive smoking.

Exposure to passive smoke increases non-smokers' risk of developing lung cancer by between 20% and 30% and their risk of developing heart disease by 25% to 30%.

Exposure to passive smoke results in the development of respiratory conditions such as pneumonia and bronchitis in between 150,000 and 300,000 children under the age of 18 months, of which between 7,500 and 15,000 require hospitalization.

More than 40% of children who require visits to emergency rooms for severe asthma attacks live in homes where smoking occurs.

Given these alarming facts and statistics about the harmful effects of exposure to secondhand smoke, it is important to determine your degree of exposure if you are a non-smoker in a home where someone smokes or if you are possibly exposed to passive smoke in the workplace.

Thanks to an instant result quantitative nicotine test kit that can be used in the home, it is now possible to determine not only if you are exposed to secondhand smoke, but also your degree of exposure. There is also a quantitative test kit designed for professional use. Each kit comes in two types. One requires the use of a urine specimen for testing. The other uses saliva.

By determining your level of environmental tobacco exposure you can then act accordingly to address one of life's serious health hazards.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purpose only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical consultation with a qualified professional. The author encourages Internet users to be careful when using medical information obtained from the Internet and to consult your doctor before make decisions that can affect your health or if you are unsure about your medical condition.

Does Secondhand Smoke Really Cause Cancer?

Based on the lack of scientific evidence, there is no conclusive data which says secondhand smoke causes cancer.

Over the past few years, the secondhand smoke debate has been discussed and debated endlessly. Here in Ontario Canada, the government just implemented legislation to ban people from smoking in all public places including bars and restaurants.

The new tobacco control legislation, called the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, as well as banning people from smoking in public places, prohibits smokers from smoking at their work place as well.

Similar legislation has also been implemented throughout many parts of United States

There have been dozens of scientific studies linking secondhand to everything from asthma to heart disease. Yet the biggest and most controversial "affect" of secondhand smoke has been its link to cancer.

But is there scientific proof that secondhand smoke actually causes cancer in non-smokers? The short answer, no.

One of the most widely used studies on the effects of secondhand smoke was done by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a report titled Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoke: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders, published in 1992. Based on information at that time, the reported concluded that secondhand smoke is responsible for 3,000 deaths of non smokers each year.

Yet by 1998 a U.S. federal court found that the EPA demonstrated no link between secondhand smoke and cancer. Even more so, the court found that the EPA "...'cherry picked' it's data,' to reach their predetermined conclusion. In other words, they lied.

And yet even after a federal court deemed the report to be complexly wrong, organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association still use the EPA study as their primary source to prove that secondhand smoke causes cancer.

Even on the Health Canada website in a report titled Protection from Second-hand Smoke in Ontario: A Review of Evidence Regarding Best Practices, the main source of "data" comes from the very same EPA study that was thrown out by a federal court. Yet this review was used as proof that secondhand smoke causes cancer and therefor should be banned by stating "all involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke is harmful and should eliminated."

Interestingly, several of the reference links on the Smoke Free Ontario website were either broken, or did not link to the referenced article.

So even with a study which came to a conclusion based on scanty data, and predetermined conclusions, places like Ontario have caved to political and public pressure banning smoking in work and public places to reduce the risk of cancer caused by secondhand smoke.

In a study published in the May 17 2003 issue of the British Medical Journal, researchers found no link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer.

"We found no measurable effect from being exposed to secondhand smoke and an increased risk of heart disease or lung cancer in nonsmokers -- not at any time or at any level," lead researcher James Enstrom, PhD, MPH, of the UCLA School of Public Health, tells WebMD. "The only thing we did find, which was not reported in the study, is that nonsmokers who live with smokers have a increased risk of widowhood because their smoking spouses do die prematurely."

Although the study was "discredited" by many for various reasons, it is still an interesting contrast to previous findings.

In another study published in 1997 by the British Medical Journal titled The accumulated evidence on lung cancer and environmental tobacco smoke, researches concluded that "breathing other people's tobacco smoke is a cause of lung cancer" They reached this conclusion by examining spouses who lived with a smoker over a long period of time and who were "constantly" exposed to secondhand smoke. And in respect to smoking at work the study noted that, "workplace exposure varies considerably and is difficult to measure." So according to this particular study, although a link to secondhand smoke and cancer is significant, there is no data to support wether the amount of secondhand smoke at the workplace is harmful - which is a main issue for the Ontario legislation.

Ultimately most people will agree that smoking is bad for you but so is eating a bucket of fried chicken. The problem is that these reports say that secondhand smoke "causes" cancer.

In an editorial titled Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer, published in the October 1999 issues of the Journal of Theoretics author By: James P. Siepmann, MD said that there are many constituting factors to cancer, but none are responsible for "causing" the disease

"The process of developing cancer is complex and multifactorial. It involves genetics, the immune system, cellular irritation, DNA alteration, dose and duration of exposure, and much more. Some of the known risk factors include genetics asbestos exposure, sex, HIV status, vitamin deficiency, diet pollution , shipbuilding and even just plain old being lazy. When some of these factors are combined they can have a synergistic effect, but none of these risk factors are directly and independently responsible for "causing" lung cancer"

As Siepmann points out in his editorial if these reports said that secondhand smoke "increases the risk of developing cancer" than perhaps that would be a little easier to swallow. But to say that secondhand smoke causes cancer has no concrete scientific merit.

Health Canada even says that they have no idea how much secondhand smoke is considered harmful "No scientific authority or regulatory health body in the world has established a safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke." And yet legislation was still passed.

Many will argue that banning smoking is a threat to our civil liberties. Another serious epidemic in this country and many other parts of the world for that matter is obesity. Should we ban people from eating cake, or asking for a second helping? No, of course not. So why is it ok for the government to tell you where to smoke?

There is little doubt that the 50 are so chemicals found in secondhand smoke are harmful to some degree, but to influence people and create laws based on data which was proven to be inaccurate, is simply too big to ignore.

Perhaps Dr. Siepmann put it best when he said, "We must weigh the risk and benefits of the behavior both as a society and as an individual based on unbiased information. Be warned though, that a society that attempts to remove all risk terminates individual liberty and will ultimately perish. Let us be logical in our endeavors and true in our pursuit of knowledge."