Secondhand Smoke: Protect Yourself From The Dangers

Secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoke and environmental tobacco smoke, is a mixture of two types of smoke:

• Sidestream smoke. This smoke wafts from the burning material.

• Mainstream smoke. This is smoke the smoker exhales.

Both types of smoke generally contain the same harmful compounds — and a lot of them. More than 4,000 chemicals make up the haze. At least 60 of the chemicals in a puff of smoke are carcinogenic, meaning they may cause cancer.

Some of the components found in tobacco smoke that are known to cause cancer or are suspected to be carcinogenic include:

• Formaldehyde

• Arsenic

• Cadmium

• Benzene

• Ethylene oxide

Here are a few other chemicals in tobacco smoke that might sound familiar, along with their effects:

• Ammonia — irritates your lungs.

• Carbon monoxide — hampers breathing by reducing oxygen in your blood.

• Methanol — toxic when breathed or swallowed.

• Hydrogen cyanide — interferes with proper respiratory function.

Secondhand smoke also contains nicotine — the highly addictive ingredient that makes smoking so difficult to stop — though this presents less of a health problem than the other substances.

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Health experts have recognized the relationship between secondhand smoke and health risks for decades. The research exploring their connections is ongoing. However, some of the known or suspected risks include:

Cancer

In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency classified environmental tobacco smoke in the most dangerous category of cancer-causing agents. Secondhand smoke is linked to cancers of the lung, breast, cervix and bladder.

Experts believe that secondhand smoke is to blame for roughly 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers each year in the United States. Some research indicates that people exposed to a spouse's cigarette smoke for several decades are about 20 percent more likely to have lung cancer. Those who are exposed long-term to secondhand smoke in the workplace or social settings may increase their risk of lung cancer by about 25 percent.

Learn more about lung cancer
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Heart Disease

A 1999 report from the U.S. Surgeon General states that secondhand smoke is associated with up to 62,000 deaths from ischemic heart disease — heart disease caused by narrowing of blood vessels to the heart — in the United States each year.

Secondhand smoke causes increased cardiovascular risks by damaging blood vessels, decreasing your ability to exercise and altering blood cholesterol levels.

Learn more about heart disease
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Secondhand smoke also may have a marked effect on the health of infants and children. Some conditions of concern are:

Asthma

Secondhand smoke may make asthma attacks more frequent and severe in children who already have asthma — up to 1 million each year.

Children with asthma who live with one smoker may be more than twice as likely to miss school because of a respiratory illness than are unexposed children without asthma. And if children with asthma live with two or more smokers, they may be more than four times as likely to be absent with respiratory illness.

Even children without asthma are 40 percent more likely to miss school with a respiratory ailment if they live with at least two smokers.

Secondhand smoke is also associated with up to 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and toddlers each year.

Middle ear conditions

Children living in households with smokers are more likely to have ear infections or fluid in their ears and are more likely to need surgically placed drainage tubes in their eardrums. Secondhand smoke may be a factor in more than 1 million children's visits to the doctor for middle ear infections every year

Low birth weight and SIDS

Secondhand smoke is also associated with low birth weight. Low birth weight, in turn, has been linked to increased risk in adults of stroke, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult-onset or noninsulin-dependent diabetes).

In addition, research indicates that if a mother smokes, her infant may have twice the risk of SIDS. The increased risk may be due to an infant's improper lung and brain development and an increased number of respiratory infections caused by smoking.

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The way to limit your exposure to secondhand smoke is straightforward: Stay away from it and keep your children away from it whenever possible. Although air conditioning may remove the visible smoke, it can't remove the particles that continue to circulate and are hazardous to your health. Here are a few specific pointers based on suggestions from the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Lung Association:

• Stop smoking. If you smoke, get help with trying to stop, and in the meantime, don't smoke in your home, in your car or around your children.

• Don't allow smoking inside your home. If a family member or guest wants to smoke, ask them to step outside.

• Choose a smoke-free child-care facility. If you take your children to a child-care provider, choose one with a no-smoking policy.

• Don't allow smoking in your vehicle. If someone must smoke on the road, stop at a rest stop for a smoke break outside the car.

• Limit exposure at work. If people are still allowed to smoke in your workplace, ask your employers or union to limit or prohibit indoor smoking. Encourage smoking-cessation programs to help your co-workers end their dependence.

• Patronize businesses with no-smoking policies. Support with your business restaurants and other establishments that have no-smoking policies. When you have to share a room with people who are smoking, sit as far away from them as possible.

• Let your voice be heard. Encourage your government officials to adopt or strengthen local smoking-control ordinances.

Even if you don't smoke, secondhand smoke still can harm your health. Take steps to protect yourself from its dangers.

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* Text Resources: The Mayo Clinic Staff

WARNING: There is no safe tobacco product. The use of any tobacco product can cause cancer and other adverse health effects. This includes all forms of tobacco including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and spit tobacco; mentholated, "low-tar," "naturally grown," or "additive free."