When you light a cigarette, cigar or pipe, you release tobacco smoke into the air. Since tobacco smoke contains many toxins, you are poisoning the air or anyone close enough to you to breathe it. People who breathe tobacco smoke produced by others are known as passive smokers. Passive smoking presents a number of health hazards. Children and older adults are particularly vulnerable to its effects.
Cancer
According to the American Lung Association, passive smoking causes over 3,000 cases of lung cancer annually in the United States alone. If you are a nonsmoker living with a smoker who smokes indoors, your risk of developing lung cancer is 20 to 30 percent greater than it otherwise would be. Passive smoking also ups your chances of developing other types of cancer that smoking increases the risk of. The 2006 surgeon general's report on passive smoking asserts that even a small degree of exposure to tobacco smoke can increase your risk of cancer.
Heart Disease
The National Cancer Institute reports nearly 50,000 heart disease deaths each year are caused by passive smoking. The most dangerous type of passive smoking is caused by constant exposure--living with a smoker, for example, or working in an office that allows smoking. Constant exposure can increase your risk of heart disease by 25 to 30 percent, and double your risk of having a heart attack. Even short exposure, such as that occurring in a bar or a restaurant, can increase your risk of having a heart attack.
Children
The American Lung Association reports that children are particularly vulnerable to passive smoking. Smoking causes at least 150,000 infections of the respiratory tract in U.S. babies each year. It also increases the symptoms of childhood asthma. Passive smoking is responsible for hundreds of cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) every year in the United States. It also contributes to the buildup of fluid in the middle ear, particularly in children. Fifty to 75 percent of children in the United States have cotinine, a nicotine byproduct, in their bloodstream, indicating exposure to tobacco smoke.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a designation for two different types of lung diseases--chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Both of these diseases make it more difficult for you to breathe and can kill you. Millions of people of people live with one or both of these two diseases in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. About twice as many females fall victim to chronic bronchitis as men. Chronic, long-term passive smoking can increase your risk for COPD.
