Secondhand Smoke
What is 'secondhand smoke'?
Is secondhand smoke worse from cigarettes or cigars?
Second-hand smoke from a cigar is actually many times worse from the second-hand smoke of a cigarette because of the way it's designed and the gas particulates that are released from the burning end of a cigar. Carbon monoxide levels in second-hand smoke are much higher from a cigar than from a cigarette, and if you are someone who happens to frequent a cigar bar, often in a set off room in a restaurant where cigars are offered with every course in a meal and many tables of people are in there smoking cigars, what we have found with testing from the EPA is that the levels of carbon monoxide and toxins in that room where multiple people are smoking cigars exceed the human safety limits by the Environmental protection Agency.
What are the dangers of secondhand smoke?
Someone who has never smoked who breathes in the passive smoke from someone else's burning cigar, pipe or cigarette takes in to their system those toxins, carcinogens, and a little bit of nicotine but not as much of that, as the person who is smoking. It is just a smaller proportion. And what kind of risks are those? The people exposed to heavy second-hand smoke, have the same risk as a smoker, just at a smaller proportion because the toxic load is less when you filter it through a room as opposed to taking it directly into your lungs. Airways, asthma, sinusitis; as you have to breathe in the smoke. Lung disease, emphysema, heart disease all increase risk of cancer. In the United States alone where our statistics are very careful, we know that 50,000 people die every year as a conservative estimate--it's more than that--because they were exposed to second-hand smoke, even though they themselves did not smoke. Fifty thousand people a year pay the price for the 47 million people who smoke and don't control where their smoke is going and who it is affecting.
Why is secondhand smoke dangerous?
Second hand smoke is dangerous because firsthand smoke is more dangerous. Cigarette smoke has more toxins, and carcinogens, and particulate matter than any other exposure to someone's physiology. And when someone is exposed near someone who is smoking a cigarette, the same risks that a smoker has pass along to a lower degree depending on the toxic load. But the diseases of people with second hand chronic long term exposure is a mirror image of the diseases that a smoker has themselves.
What is 'hydrogen cyanide'?
Hydrogen cyanide is a chemical that is released in cigarette smoke when it is burned that is a poison. Most people think of cyanide as poisoning, because we know can kill someone in a few minutes when ingested or injected into their bloodstream. It's used as pesticides and rodenticides to get rid of pests very quickly. Cyanide is a product that can be found to high levels in cigarette smoke, not high enough to kill you on the spot from a poison but high enough to accumulate over time to where it is measurable in a human smoker and just adds to that load of dangerous chemicals, along with carcinogens in the physiology of someone who chronically breathes in and ingests cigarette smoke.
Who is most at risk for secondhand smoke?
Anyone who is in the environment of a burning cigar, pipe or cigarette where that smoke expands to fill the space in a car or room, and anyone exposed to that breathing space is at risk. Second-hand smoke is not safe no matter what quantity you breathe it in. For some people it's even more dangerous. That would include people who live with smokers, roommates, spouses, the children, co-workers, anyone exposed to the sensation. If you can smell cigarette smoke, you're at risk for having some of the toxic effects occurring in you. The smaller you're packaged, meaning children or pets, the higher the individual risk is for them for the toxic effect.
Why is secondhand smoke especially harmful to children?
Children should be protected from things that can prevent them from illness. Secondhand smoke is dangerous. Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous when the human being is very small, and their airways are very absorbent. Their body ratio tolerates toxins at a much more complicated level than an adult does. I would encourage you, if you can protect the breathing space of a child, to do so. You will decrease their upper respiratory infections, you'll improve their functioning in school, and you'll also decrease the likelihood that they'll become smokers in the future, because they don't see smoking modeled among their heroes in their life.
I only smoke once or two cigarettes a day, is my family at risk for secondhand smoke?
Can secondhand smoke affect the health of my baby?
There are many women who have chosen not to smoke during pregnancy, or have never smoked, but they live with someone who smokes or they work in an environment where they are exposed to second-hand smoke. I would encourage them to consider that to be a serious threat to their unborn child. Second-hand smoke, to an adult, robs them of oxygen and can increase their airways. It is important during pregnancy to maintain healthy airways, and to maintain healthy airways especially as the child, as the foetus, and to constrict that airway, which is the space that you can breathe in. If you do not smoke through your pregnancy but are exposed to second-hand smoke, and after delivery your child continues to be exposed to second-hand smoke from someone else who lives in your home or an environment where they go for babysitting, you need to look carefully at what is going into the lungs of your child. Dad smoking can even increase the risk of those airway infections or even Sudden Infant Death syndrome if that toxic smoke environment is present in that child's life. This increased risk is especially evident in the very early weeks and months of their life.
Are smoky bars or restaurants potentially dangerous to my health?
In the United States, there's been an increasing trend to have smoke free public places in restaurants and in work places. When you take your family, especially your children, into a public facility where cigarette smoking occurs over here is air exchange in this building, it is just a matter of concentration about how much you're getting. There is not a protection just because a few feet or yards away there is a divider that says a non-smoking side. Even filters in the buildings that are supposed to protect and decrease those toxins have been shown to be totally ineffective. So I would encourage you to consider those toxic places, especially do not take your children there and you need to be aware that you are accepting the risk of second hand smoke when you go into a facility that allows smokers and non-smokers to be in the same air breathing space, the risk is not low and it is not zero.
How can I limit my exposure to secondhand smoke?
If you and your children are non-smoker's, I would encourage you to make choices about where you breathe. If you breathe anywhere within visual contact of cigarette smoke, and you can detect it because you have a good sense of smell, then you are ultimately at risk. If you see someone smoking, and you see where the smoke is, walk around it. Don't get into the pathway of visual smoke. If you are in a room where co-workers smoke, you need to see if your company is supposed to have a tobacco free policy. That's your right. It's your health. It's your life.
How far away from a smoker should I stand to protect myself from secondhand smoke?
When someone is smoking in a closed space where air is not blowing, and that smoke, as it dissipates in the gas of the room, gets to where you can smell it at all, then you're at risk for consequences of that gas particle phase. You may not have as much of the toxic effect, you may have very minimal nicotine effects, but you will still have the gaseous effect that can increase eye irritation, nose irritation, congestion, sinusitis, sore throat, and so on. Your airways are going to be affected if you can detect it at all, if you have a good sense of smell. If you don't have a good sense of smell, stand further away. If your nose can detect the scent of gas, it's not safe. If you're out of doors, than stay upwind. Don't stay downwind of a smoker. If you can see smoke, don't walk through it. Cigarette smoke from someone else is not safe to you. Even in 30 seconds we know, 30 seconds of concentrated second-hand smoke can put someone at risk of a heart attack, who has predisposition for that. That is a finding released by the Center for Disease Control two years ago, and should put us all on alert that if we don't want to have an unexpected consequence of second-hand smoke, we just need to avoid it.
