To start with, passive smoking affects children’s health the most. Children of smokers tend to contract middle ear infections, coughing, respiratory complications and even death. Their chances of developing asthma are higher as well. This is because second hand smoke has far-reaching influences on unborn children.
Pregnant women who are chronic smokers or connect with smokers are likely to give birth to babies with respiratory problems. These babies’ overall health is lower than the average. Their weight may be low and their ability to learn and develop new skills is impaired.The World Health Organization reveals that over 4000 babies die of bronchitis and pneumonia each year because of second-hand smoke.
In Australia, some parents who avert their children to inhale the smoke from their cigarette by smoking outside the house.
Nonetheless, this activity (outdoor smoking) can still affect children indoor.
Dr Krassi Rumchev from Curtin University of Technology , says that respirable suspended particles, including nicotine, are found highly in smokers’ houses.Smokers seem to disperse pollutants into the home when come inside as they breathe out smoke and it pollutes the air. “Nicotine attaches to the hair and body, and pollutants are dispersed into the air off clothes, because small particles can attach to clothes", said Dr. Rumchey.
As a result, Children whose parents smoke outside home are exposed to levels of environmental tobacco smoke high enough to cause harm.
They are three times more likely to have respiratory illnesses including asthma, coughs, colds and runny nose than those in smoke-free homes. This environmental tobacco smoke further impacts the children under three as their lung and immune system still develop.About 8% of childhood asthma and 13% of major lower respiratory illnesses in Australian children are due to passive smoking.
In respect to the damage the second-hand smoke does to adult’s health, it is known that passive smokers may contract several smoking-related illnesses after associating with smoker for certain period.
.jpg)
First of all, they have 30 % of opportunity having heart attack and stroke. One medical study in US also has identified that passive smokers have the same risk of getting lung cancer as the smokers. According to the study, 20% of women in US who develop lung cancer have never smoked. (The hideous lungs on the right in the above picture are belonged to smokers)
Apart from that, Doctor Chengbo Wang, a magnetic resonance physicist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, points out that second-hand smoke can trigger emphysema.
Dr.Wang uses MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to scan the lungs of non-smokers who has lived with smokers for over 10 years. He discovers they have the same early signals of lung damage that causes emphysema as those found in smokers.
"We find that 57% of the smokers and 33% of the non-smokers with high exposure to second-hand smoke had signs of early lung damage as measured by the scan”, Dr Wand says.
Professor Thomas Houston of the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in Alabama states that smoke toxins could affect the pancreas, which makes the blood sugar regulator insulin.
He carries out an experiment in which he finds 17% of passive smokers develop the condition of type two diabetes.This proves that diabetes links to passive smoking.
"Passive smokers are exposed to toxins similar to those of active smokers, but some toxic substances are even more concentrated in passive smoke”, said Dr.Thomas.
Passive tobacco exposure in never smokers is likely to be a new risk factor for glucose intolerance.
People with asthma, especially children should avoid passive smoking as it would lead to an asthma attack and raise the frequency of it. Because the asthma strikes more often and grows more severe, people become more reliable on asthma medications that can narrow their airways and reduce their lungs functions.
At last, smoky bars and pubs should be the last places non-smokers consider visiting on the weekends. The cigarette smoke there not only makes the cloths and hair smell but also irritates the eyes and throat. Cardiac specialist, Dr, Jonny from Australia National University believes that second-hand cigarette smoke can diminish the amount of oxygen carried in our bloodstream, replacing it with carbon monoxide. Besides, it also influences our blood vessels, which are very sensitive to the toxins in cigarette smoke.
To conclude, passive smoking can shorten the lives of non-smokers. Heart attack, stroke, lung cancer, emphysema, asthma, diabetes, destruction of blood vessels are the common smoking-related illnesses. In general, after years of passive tobacco exposure, non-smokers particularly children and women are prone to develop one of these diseases as those of smokers. Therefore, many governments worldwide have established legislation that outlaws smoking in public places and public vehicles such as buses, trams and trains. Personally, I avoid making friends with smokers and would be very pissed off if people next to me in the pub or restaurant smoked. Normally, I would ask the waiter to change the table in this circumstance.
Reference Lists
Jamrozik, K. (2005). Estimate of deaths attributable to passive smoking among UK adults: database analysis Retrieved from21, April.09
ttp://www.injurious-smoking.com/facts.htm
Kawachi, I. (2005). More evidence on the risks of passive smoking. Retrieved from12, April.09
http://quitsmoking21.com/The_Multiple_Effects_of_Passive_Smoking.html
Laurent, C. (2004). UK health minister under pressure to ban smoking in public Retrieved 12, April.09
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact08.html
Maggie.F (2007) Passive smoking may trigger emphysema. Retrieved 24 April.09
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/11/27/2102689.htm?site=science&topic=health
Passive smoking is a health hazard (2008) Retrieved 11 April, 09
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Smoking_and_heart_disease_the_facts?OpenDocument
Public say passive smoking is dangerous (1998) Retrieved 12, April.09
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/background_briefings/smoking/231844.stm
Stranges, S. (2006). Lifetime cumulative exposure to second-hand smoke and risk of myocardial infarction in never smokers Retrieved from21, April.09
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/329/7459/200?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=passive+smoking&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1113528532183_26876&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1
Study ties passive smoking to dementia (2009) Retrieved 24, April.09
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE51C01R20090213?rpc=28
Tong, E. K., Glantz, S. A. (2007). Tobacco Industry Efforts Undermining Evidence Linking Secondhand Smoke With Cardiovascular Disease. Retrieved 12, April.09
http://www.robshouse.net/node/1727
Zemanta, S (2009) Second-hand smoke, dangers of passive smoking. Retrieved 24, April.09
http://www.smokinghelper.com/second-hand-smoke-passive-smoking-dangers/
Delicious Link http://delicious.com/Monster86
To conclude there is only one main point---- smoking is bad to yourself, bad to others. At my point of view, cigarettes do not really have a difference to drugs…actually it really is drug. The only difference is you will not die that fast. Smoking might relax you but it also have sequela if cannot control the amount of taking it. Unfortunately, people could always be addicted to something easily. Despite of who would be affected, another more important thing I realize is that people are too selfish. Well, humans are always selfish. I will not say a single word if you stay at a corner and smoke, but do not affect the others. On the street, there are always people standing outside the front of stores smoking. As you have mentioned passive smoking is a huge problem and the truth is the damage to passive-smokers’ body is more vital than the regular smokers. This is not something about health, it could be related to morals.
ReplyDeleteThere have been too many instances where I've been a reluctant passive smoker - with little I could do about it! It's not just those standing outside buildings. Have you ever been behind someone walking down busy Queen Street with a cigarette dangling from their fingers? At times there's no escaping the smoke.
ReplyDeleteProfessor Thomas Houston talks of toxins in cigarette smoke and its affects on the body. Not many people are aware of the huge number of toxins residing in the smoke (over 40), which include arsenic. Can't understand these people who smoke to stay thin! Why start when it's so difficult to stop and with the cigarette companies altering the nicotine level etc to keep people addicted.
I totally agree smoking sucks.I have lived with smokers in the past and they think because they blow their smoke out the window or stand in the doorway that they are the ones doin me a big favor.
ReplyDeleteI had a feeling smoking was very unhealthy for passive smokers and your aticle confirms this.
With the information that has been found through research on smoking you would think they would be able to charge smokers with some sought of a criminal offence as they are killing the people who are around them very slowly.
However i suppose as long as we have big Tobbacco companies making millions of dollars and governments collecting revenue off these companies, these companies will be around for some time yet.
I suppose we can be thankfull the New Zealand Govt has made laws banning smoking in many public areas.
Smoking must be really addictive because you would have to be plain stupid to want to smoke after looking at some of the pictures on the cigarette packs these days.
I really enjoyed reading your piece.
( i tried to send you invite to read my blog but i need your email add .feel free to send me an email If you need another blog to review and i will invite you.)
Wow!! What a serious issue that you discussed!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't know about passive smoking until now. There are lots of useful information in your article and I am really pleased to read this article.
According to your article, somkers affect their children, I knew that before but not in depth. It sounds horrible it cause asthma or serious health issue to children even unborn babies.
Also, when you introduced WHO's research result which was that "World Health organization reveals that over 4000 babies die of bronchiti and pneumonia each year due to second hand smoker". I was quite surprised for such a large figure. I thought when women pregenent, they are control about their health and they must stop smoking!! But your research turns me up to the real fact that they are just could not stop their smoking even though they are on the pregenet. Right??
Personally I believe, people should think about their health and must able to control their health by themselves. Also, Women must not to smoke when they are on pregenent.
Do you agree with me?? *'-'*
I agree with your opinion.
ReplyDeleteSecond-hand smoking is really harmful not only to human being but also to our common environment, even has serious impact to our forespring!
My ex-boyfriend smokes a lot, I really can not stand this anymore, since we are together from this March, I always feel dizzy, cough, easy to get irritated, this is all due to the second-hand smoking---the doctor told me.
I still have no idea why our government still permit its existence in the world. Why we still have to suffer from second-hand smoking everyday and everywhere?
We should work together, hand by hand, carry out a special activity to stop this bad behavior, I hope its day of extinction is soon.
Smoking cigarettes is bad! It is never enough to stress how bad it is. It is not only bad for the cigarette smokers but also for the second-hand smokers. It was shocking news that outdoor smokers still affect the indoor non-smokers. This tells us that there is no safe zone from smoking cigarettes.
ReplyDeleteWill Earth ever be a smoke free zone in the future? I wish as a non-smoker, this hope comes true but realistically, it would less likely happen to us. Cigarettes are legalized drug. Even cigarettes are become an illegal drugs someday, I assume there will be some people who would keep doing it like any other illegal drug users today.
Most of us know that smoking is bad for one's health. Both smokers and non-smokers admit this fact, but smokers keep smoking and non-smokers get displeasure from it. The cigarette cost in New Zealand is respectively higher than other countries I believe. For example, it is about three times more expensive than my home country, Korea. However, many of them continue their bad habits.
The topic is one of complicated issues that we have faced over the world like gun-control, euthanasia, abortion and etc. Issues like these were argued over many years by pros and cons and they are not easy to come to conclusion. I think we can not stop smokers from smoking cigarette but we should keep persuading them not to smoke for ourselves.
It is so ashamed to say this, but yeah... i am a smoker, and honestly, i have never thought that outdoor smokers still affect the indoor non-smokers. and i didn't know many non-smokers hate smokers THAT MUCH...;;;
ReplyDeletethank you for letting me think again about smoking cigarrete. from now on, i will start to not smoke when there's people around me. and sorry for people whoever it was around me when i was smoking... T.T
Haha!! As Bo Ing said, ‘Smoking sucks!’. The second-hand smoking is worse!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs I said before on Hitomi’s blog, smoking costs you money and health. I don’t see a point why people want to smoke. I hope smokers know the second-hand smoking is very bad for non-smokers.