Secondhand smoke is a major cause of lung cancer in people who have never smoked. Secondhand smoke also increases the risk of heart disease and asthma in those who don't smoke.
Secondhand smoke is the smoke that comes from the tip of a lighted cigarette, cigar, or pipe, or the smoke exhaled by a smoker.
- According to the American Cancer Society, more than 3,400 Americans die yearly from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke.
- When you include heart disease and other cancers caused by secondhand smoke, an estimated 53,000 Americans die prematurely each year from secondhand smoke causes.
- 43 percent of children under age 11 live in a home with at least one smoker.
- Up to 1,000,000 children have experienced aggravated asthma symptoms due to secondhand smoke.
- Asthma accounts for approximately 17 percent of all pediatric emergency visits in the United States.
- Damage to the heart, caused by secondhand smoke, is cumulative and often irreversible.
Why Protect Your Kids From Secondhand Smoke?
Children have small, developing lungs. When they live with a smoker, they are at higher risk for lung cancer, heart disease, colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, chronic coughs, ear infections, and reduced lung function than are those kids who live in a smoke-free home.
Secondhand smoke can cause genetic damage in children and increase their cancer risk later in life.
There is a higher incidence of sudden infant death (SIDS) when the mother smokes.
In addition, children are more likely to become smokers themselves when they are raised by someone who smokes. Even though they might know there are risks, kids admire and want to be like their parents. Parents are major role models for their children.
You Can Make the Air Safer
Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds. Fifty of these compounds are known to be carcinogenic (cancer causing), including formaldehyde, benzene, and arsenic. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified environmental tobacco smoke as a Class A carcinogen – a major cause of cancer.
When you smoke in your car or home, you put everyone at risk – yourself, those around you, even your pets. If you don't quit smoking, do make sure you stop smoking in your home or car. That way you can protect those you care about.
- Do not allow others to smoke in your home.
- Do not allow smoking near children or persons with asthma.
- Minimize the time your children spend in smoky environments.
It's Up to You
There can be no excuse for putting others at risk from your secondhand smoke. And likewise, there is no excuse for someone putting you at risk with their secondhand smoke.
Many health risks, like air pollution, are difficult to avoid or overcome. But the danger from secondhand smoke can be almost entirely eliminated by making rational choices about if and where you smoke.
Children are often at the mercy of those smokers around them. You can do something about that. Be a positive role model. Practice the behaviors that you would want your children to imitate. |
