Tobacco users may realize their own risks for health problems related to smoking but not the side effects of their passive, or secondhand, smoke on others. Passive smoke is directly attributed to nearly 50,000 deaths from cancer and heart disease annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a factor in many infant deaths and a suspected cause of other diseases still under study, including breast, cervical and nasal cavity cancers.
Respiratory Effects
Passive cigarette smoke causes health problems for people with respiratory conditions. Because smoke irritates the skin, nose, throat, airways and lungs, people with skin conditions, allergies, asthma, and bronchitis can be affected. After exposure to secondhand smoke, their symptoms may worsen, the CDC reports.
Children especially are subject to severe asthma attacks. Tobacco users also jeopardize the lung development of children with their passive smoke. This causes a higher rate of colds, flus, bronchitis and pneumonia than in children who aren't exposed to smoke.
Cardiovascular Effects
Passive smoke affects the heart and blood vessels of nonsmokers, causing changes that can lead to heart attacks. The website of the U.S. surgeon general definitively links secondhand smoke exposure to heart disease. Contact with cigarette smoke diffused in the blood causes the artery walls to collect plaque, which eventually narrows the space in which blood flows.
This condition, called atherosclerosis, causes health problems such as high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. The American Heart Association points out that the number of reported heart attacks significantly drops when local jurisdictions enact laws restricting indoor tobacco use in public areas.
Reproductive Effects
Secondhand smoke affects babies in the womb during gestation. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cites a University of Pittsburgh study that equates damage from a mother's passive smoke exposure with damage caused by a maternal tobacco user.
Developing children are especially at risk for health problems from cigarette smoke, which is blamed for low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome, two leading causes of infant death. The HHS notes that babies who are exposed to passive smoke have twice the risk for SIDS.
Cancer Death
Adults face an increase in lung cancer risk of up to 30 percent if they inhale passive smoke, according to the CDC. The risk rises from the norm in relation to the length of time and amount of cigarette smoke encountered in the home or workplace. Ending exposure can reverse some but not all of the lung damage. The Mayo Clinic notes that, once contracted, most cases of lung cancer end in death.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke
- American Heart Association: The Truth About Secondhand Smoke
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Secondhand Smoke
- Maine Department of Health and Human Services: Fetal Exposure to Secondhand Smoke
- Mayo Clinic: Lung Cancer
