The Risks of Involuntary Smoking

The Risks of Secondhand Smoke

What should you know?

Have you ever breathed the smoke that curls up from the tip of someone's cigarette? Have you ever breathed the smoked exhaled by a smoker? If so, then you have breathed most of the same harmful, cancer-causing parts of smoke inhaled by smokers. As an involuntary smoker, a nonsmoker breathing the smoke from others, you are at increased risk. Former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said, "It is now clear that disease risk due to inhalation of tobacco smoke is not limited to the individual who is smoking."

The risk of developing disease depends on the amount of tobacco smoke exposure. As an involuntary smoker, you breathe less tobacco smoke than an active smoker because the smoke mixes with the air around you, but this smoke can be more harmful, as it does not pass through any filters. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 3,000 nonsmokers die of lung cancer annually, as a result of breathing someone else's cigarette smoke.

Involuntary smoking also causes heart disease, aggravates asthmatic conditions, and impairs blood circulation.

Through legislation has been passed reducing smoking in the workplace, there's still cause for concern. Tobacco smoke spreads quickly, and a workday is more than enough time to expose most people within many working environments. Even if you don't sit next to smokers, the smoky air within a building may be harmful.

Why should you know?

The Surgeon General and the National Academy of Sciences have examined the evidence surrounding involuntary smoking. Both studies agreed: Exposure to other people's smoke increases the risk of developing lung cancer.

Other studies have also shown dangers for nonsmokers who breathe the smoke from cigarettes. The studies found that:

	Overall, nonsmoking wives of husbands who smoke have a 20% increased risk of lung cancer compared with women whose husbands don't smoke.
	Nonsmokers married to heavy smokers (40+ cigarettes per day) were found to have 2 times the risk of lung cancer compared with those married to nonsmokers.
	Nonsmokers married to current smokers had about 20% higher coronary heart disease mortality compared to nonsmoking couples.

These studies have focused on people who live with smokers; if you live with just one smoker, you are at risk for lung cancer.

What about kids?

Lung cancer is not the only hazard that faces involuntary smokers. For instance, the children of smokers have a greater chance of developing certain illnesses such as:

	colds
	bronchitis and pneumonia, specially during the first two years of life
	chronic coughs, especially as children get older
	ear infections
	reduced lung function
	increasing severity of symptoms and episodes among children with asthma

As with adults, the more smoke a child is exposed to, the more that child's risk is increased. Therefore, if it is the smoking parent who handles most of the child care, the child's chances of developing the ailments listed above are greater. And of course, the risk is highest if both parents smoke.

For more information on the exposing children to smoking click here.

What can you do?

Now that you know that all smoke is harmful, what can you do to help fight the problem?

	If you smoke, stop.
	If others in your household smoke, help them stop.
	Ask to be seated in the nonsmoking sections of restaurants and public transportation.
	Make certain that your children's school and their child-care situations are smoke-free.
	Help negotiate for a smoke-free work environment.
	Ask visitors not to smoke in your home.
	Let your legislators know where you stand on nonsmoker's rights issues, and that you will support their efforts to pass laws designed to protect the nonsmoker.
	Call you local American Cancer Society and ask how you can become active in the effort to reduce smoking in your community.

For more information contact your local health department or physician.