What is Passive Smoking and Why Should You Care?

Passive smoking is the involuntary inhalation of smoke from tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, and the like.  In some areas it is called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke.  Persons who live in close quarters with someone who smokes are known to be affected by passive smoking, including spouses, children, and even pets.

Is passive smoking really harmful?

Much research has been done by scientists, doctors, and even environmentalists when it comes to passive smoking and its effects.  This research has borne out the fact that secondhand smoke, that is, the smoke released by the smoldering end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by the smoker, causes the same problems as direct smoking.  This includes lung cancer, heart diseases, heart attacks, strokes, bronchitis, asthma, and a host of other diseases.

Persons who live with smokers have been shown to have a 20-30% greater risk of lung cancer than non-smokers who live in a smoke-free environment. 

Passive smoking in public makes the news.

The harmful effects of passive smoking has brought about almost nationwide bans on smoking in the workplace and other indoor public places, including restaurants, bars, and other hotspots.  Even places that were known for their smoky atmosphere, such as bowling alleys and nightclubs, have fallen under this pressure to ban smoking in their buildings.  Some diehard smokers of course rebelled against this, and demanded that their “rights” be protected, but the majority of patrons of these establishments applauded the new, cleaner atmosphere.

How passive smoking affects those around you.

Most people are very concerned with their own families more than anything, and it’s surprising to most when they find out how much damage has been done and continues to be done when one smokes.  Adults or children with asthma can experience attacks brought on by passive smoking, and tobacco has an immediate effect on the blood vessels, causing them to constrict, making the heart work hard.  In 1992, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a review of the available evidence regarding the relationship between secondhand smoke and heart disease, and estimated that passive smoking was responsible for 35,000 to 40,000 deaths per year in the United States in the early 1980s.  Parental smoking can affect children and babies, and is associated with low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis and pneumonia, and middle ear infections.

Yes, there really is reason to learn about passive smoking and how it affects everyone around you, and there is good reason to care about those effects as well.

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