Secondhand Smoke Facts

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Secondhand Smoke Facts In this article I will try to explain about, secondhand smoke facts. Generally, secondhand smoke facts, also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), a combination of two circumstances, namely:
  • Mainstream smoke: smoke that is exhaled by smokers
  • Side stream smoke: the smoke that comes from the burning tip of cigarettes, cigars, or pipes.

A study in the United States show that between 70% and 90% non-smokers, children and adults, have been regularly exposed to secondhand smoke every day.

Meanwhile, an estimated 85% of cigarette smoke will be spread in the air and inhaled when a person breathe. And only 15% are inhaled by the smoker. So, if someone was in a room with people who smoke for 2 hours, then that person although not a smoker, but inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes.

In the United States, secondhand smoke is the third preventable cause of disability and premature death (after active smoking and alcohol). The comparison is one passive smoker who died, compared with 8 smokers who die. There are more than 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, including 40 of them cause cancer, and 200 hazardous chemicals. In fact, the EPA classifies secondhand smoke as a cancer-causing carcinogen Class A.

Medical research also found that passive smokers suffer from many diseases due to accidentally inhale smoke that is exhaled by smokers. The most common diseases suffered are lung cancer, and heart disease. This study also found that women who live with smokers have a 91% risk of heart disease, and two times more at risk for lung cancer. Cigarette smoke will cause increased heart rate, and shorten time to fatigue. If exposed to smoke continually, there will be a thickening of the carotid artery wall, so blood pressure increases, due to blocked blood vessels. This condition in medical condition called atherosclerosis. This process occurs after the heart attack that can end in death.

Current estimates of the various diseases caused by cigarette smoke are less precise, because the statistics are rarely calculated adverse effect of smoking on secondhand smoke. Hopefully an article about secondhand smoke facts, can give an idea of secondhand smoke facts.


Source:
Secondhand Smoke Facts on http://www1.umn.edu/perio/tobacco/secondhandsmoke.html.