Most people realize that smoking is dangerous to the health of the smoker. Recently, more and more people have become aware that smoking also damages people who breathe the secondhand smoke produced by smokers. When you smoke in public, you put strangers at risk. For this reason, public smoking has been restricted.
Definition of Secondhand Smoking
Secondhand smoke is divided into two types, according to the National Cancer Institute. One is the smoke expelled from a burning tobacco product such as a cigarette, cigar or pipe. Cigarette and cigar smoke contain not only tobacco smoke, but also paper residue. The other type of secondhand smoke is smoke exhaled by the smoker. Secondhand smoking occurs when someone inhales one of these two types of secondhand smoke.
Measuring Secondhand Smoke Exposure
The level of secondhand smoke in a particular environment is estimated by measuring nicotine or some of the other chemicals that are found in tobacco smoke, says the National Cancer Institute. The amount of secondhand smoke inhaled by a secondhand smoker can be estimated by measuring the level of cotinine, nicotine and carbon dioxide in the body fluids. The 2006 surgeon general's report on secondhand smoke found that even a slight amount of secondhand smoking can damage a person's health.
Health Risks
Secondhand smoking causes the same health problems that smoking does, although to a lesser degree. The American Lung Association reports that secondhand smoking causes more than 3,000 lung cancer deaths and tens of thousands of deaths from heart disease each year in the United States alone. Even brief exposure can increase the risk of heart attack. It is likely that many of the risks of secondhand smoking remain undetected, since tobacco smoke contains hundreds of toxic chemicals.
Effect on Children
Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoking, reports the American Lung Association. It results in hundreds of thousands of infant respiratory tract infections every year, as well as hundreds of cases of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. Tobacco smoke aggravates the symptoms of childhood asthma. In the U.S., at least half of all children are exposed to secondhand smoke, as evidenced by levels of cotinine found in their bloodstream.
Locations
Restaurants and bars that allow smoking are among the most dangerous environments for secondhand smoke--in fact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that they contain several times as much smoke as smokers' residences and workplaces that allow smoking. In response to this environmental danger, federal legislation has been passed that bans smoking on airline flights, interstate buses, federally owned buildings and facilities that provide federally funded services to children. State and local governments have imposed various restrictions on smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places.
