Inhaling other people’s tobacco smoke is referred to as ‘passive smoking’. This consists of “sidestream” smoke from the burning end of the cigarette, and “mainstream” smoke that a smoker breathes in and subsequently exhales. Sidestream smoke is responsible for approximately 85% of the smoke in a room.
Here Are Some Facts You Need to Know About Passive Smoking:
- Tobacco smoke includes in excess of 4000 chemicals in the form of particles and gases. Tar, nicotine, benzene and benzo (a) pyrene make up the particulate phase. Carbon monoxide, ammonia, dimethylnitrosamine, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and acrolein constitute the gas phase.
- It has been anticipated that tobacco smoke includes as many as 60 substances which lead to or are known to result in cancer. There are also many substances in tobacco smoke that are a source of irritation to the tissues of the respiratory system.
- Tobacco smoke has been categorized as a class A carcinogen, positioning it alongside asbestos and arsenic.
- Inhaling smoke coming from other people’s gigarettes can lead to irritation of the eye, headache, cough, sore throat, dizziness and nausea.
- An exposure of merely thirty minutes to cigarette smoke exhaled by other people is considered adequate to diminish the blood flow through the heart.
- Evidence also suggests that individuals with asthma can experience a considerable deterioration in lung function when subjected to smoke from other people.
- People who do not smoke but are subjected to passive smoking in the home, have a twenty five percent enhanced possibility of heart disease and lung cancer.
- New studies indicate that the threat of coronary heart disease is augmented by 50 to 60 per cent in people exposed to passive smoking in their workplaces together with public places as well.
- Studies also reveal that passive smoking leads to lung cancer and ischemic heart disease in adult non-smokers. It also results in respiratory ailment, cot death, middle ear disease and asthmatic attacks in children.
- There is also certain proof that indicates that passive smoking may impact the mental growth of children.
- A considerable number of individuals are exposed to large amounts of tobacco smoke frequently coupled with the fact that numerous children are subjected to tobacco smoke at home. Studies also reveal that children, whose parents smoke in their dwelling place, are more vulnerable to bronchitis and pneumonia and have to be admitted to hospital in the first year of life.
- A large number of children are admitted to hospital yearly due to the harmful impacts of passive smoking. Prohibiting smoking in public places is the only way of tackling the problems arising out of passive smoking.
However individuals who smoke should realize that smoking in public places can be a source of great inconvenience to people who are around. Hence it is imperative that they should refrain from smoking in places where others are present. It is the only way to deal with passive smoking in an effective manner. Parents who smoke at home should be aware of the consequences that their action can have on their children, and so should not smoke in front of them.
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August 15th, 2007 at 11:02 am
if you smoke near i child u are getting your children to become passive smokers and this can harm there brain lungs and other bits in there body
and i am against smoking
October 29th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I feel really strongly about passive smoking, its killing so many people and the statistics of people getting sick from it is continuely rising. I think should be a seperate place for smokers so that it doesn’t affect the nonsmokers around them.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
The problem is that 90% of the new smokers are children or teenagers. At least 4.5 million children between 12 and 17 smoke!
February 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
The thing i think smokers need to relize that if the want to hert them selves then fine but do it away from children and other nonsmoking adault because they obveously don’t want to be hert so please smoke away from people so you do not put other peoples life at stake
February 4th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
everybodys comment above is vgery true and u smokers that come on to this website take all of this into deep consideration
March 6th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
if you are a smoker and you smoke around children you have no shame and digity. not all smokers do this but i have seen this happen before. please have a little respect for the young innocent lives out there. if you don’t care about your own heath please reconize that you are not the only one breathing the air around you.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Reading this made me cry. I think it’s time that us passive smokers that do not have a say to speak up. My mother smokes around me. In our home. In the car. At the dinner table. In the lounge room. Out in public. Yet, the moment i cough from the smoke to insinuate for her to put it out, i get the whole “dont you tell me how to live my life, when you grow up perfect then you can judge me”. The minute i ask her to put it out or leave the room in frustration, it turns into a screaming match, usually resulting in tears. Don’t people understand what it’s like to be effectively shortening your own child’s lifespan. Or possibly, how that is making their child feel. Well i can say, being that child, at the age of 17, it feels horrible. To have to live with it. Everyday. Adversely affecting my health. My father also smokes, however i do not live with him. My twin brother smokes and has since he was the age of 12. Clearly, family plays a major influence in this problem. So many people die every year from the causes of smoking, and also, unfortunately… many also die from the long term effects of passive smoking. One day, my name will probably be added to that list as i’ve been subjected to this my entire life. So, if anyone has any idea’s on how to escape this… im all ears!
thankyou for your time.
kim. australia. melbourne.
September 27th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
i clearly object smokin in public since it not only affects the smaker but has a severe affect on passive smokers it inlfuences young children of ages 12 and above to try this out
November 17th, 2008 at 12:44 am
With everyone saying how dangerous passive smoking is, it’s astonishing there is anyone left on the planet. Just how did people survive during the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s when there was so much smoking everywhere? These days a mere whiff of cigarette smoke and a non-smoker claims they are near to death. It really is pathetic. People smoked around me when I was a child. It hasn’t resulted in any damage to my brain, lungs, growth or lifespan. Your children are in far more danger from the air content that you can’t see, particularly air pollutants from diesel and gasoline. Add to that all of the man made fibres in the air you breathe from furniture and clothing,
The medical profession tells us thousands have been dying from passive smoking, and yet this is never recorded as a reason at the time of death, it’s merely extrapolated from very small samples of data.
I wish someone would provide some REAL evidence for deaths caused by passive smoking and not just the BIASED MANTRA that is reported in the media.