Passive Smoking

Passive Smoking is second hand smoking - breathing in others "used up" smoke.

Secondhand tobacco smoke poisons hide in household dust and on furniture and other surfaces like curtains, clothing which can expose adults and children to levels of poison that are equivalent to several hours of active smoking. When you smoke, it isn’t only your own health you’re putting at risk, it is also others around you who are affected.

What is passive smoking?
Passive smoking occurs when anyone (including the smoker) inhales tobacco smoke from the environment, as opposed to directly inhaling from a cigarette

This environmental or ‘second-hand’ smoke comprises two parts:

smoke exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke) and
smoke produced from the tip of a burning cigarette (side-stream smoke).

Smokers only inhale about 15% of the smoke from a cigarette. The rest enters the atmosphere.

How dangerous is passive smoking?

Second-hand smoke contains all the same carcinogenic toxins and poisons that the smoker inhales, but at even greater levels. Toxins in second-hand smoke aren't filtered. They are side-stream smoke which is formed at lower temperatures and gives off even larger amounts of some harmful substances.

It is estimated that a non-smoker in a smoke-filled room for eight hours will inhale the equivalent amount of carcinogens to smoking 36 cigarettes

Immediate negative effects of second-hand smoke may include:-

eye irritation
headache
nasal discomfort and sneezing
cough
sore throat
nausea
dizziness
increased heart rate and blood pressure.

Exposure to second-hand smoke and smoking while pregnant are both linked to miscarriage, low birth weight and stillbirths. Children of parents who smoke have a greater chance of dying of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Passive smoking and cancer
Second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer in non-smoking partners of heavy smokers as well as in non-smokers exposed to smoke in the workplace.

Passive smoking and heart disease
30 minutes exposure to passive cigarette smoke is 30 times more harmful to the hearts of non-smokers.

Poisons exhaled by smokers cause

decreased oxygen to the heart
increased blood pressure and heart rate
increased blood clotting and
damage to lining of the blood vessels

Passive smoking and respiratory problems

Second-hand smoke has also been linked to a number of other respiratory health problems, including pneumonia, sinus infection and impaired lung function.
Children whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer from colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections, coughing and allergies. If the children already have asthma or allergies, a parent's smoking may cause these conditions to get worse

Passive smoking and Women’s health

A woman who lives with a 20-or-more-a-day smoker has her chance of becoming pregnant lowered by 34%. Conception will be even harder for a woman who smokes and is exposed to passive smoke. Middle-aged men who are heavily exposed to second-hand smoke have nearly twice the risk of not fathering children.

If a woman falls pregnant and she is a smoker, she should stop smoking for the nine months that she is pregnant. Tobacco can have terrible effects on an unborn child:-

Unborn babies do not develop well because oxygen cannot be carried by the blood of a smoking mother and her unborn baby.
Babies born to smoking mothers are smaller than babies of non-smoking mothers.
Low birth-weight babies are more likely to die at birth.

Babies born to mothers who smoke get sick more often. They develop more slowly than babies of non-smoking mothers. They may also not do well in school in the early years

Pregnancy and smoking
If a pregnant woman smokes there is a higher risk of:

miscarriages
start of labour before the time
more bleeding for the mother
reduced breast milk

Protect your child from tobacco smoke

Poisons in cigarettes pass through breast milk of the smoking mother to her baby.
Babies of mothers who smoke during pregnancy also get more coughs, colds, bronchitis and pneumonia than other babies
Children of smoking parents inhale the same amount of nicotine as if they themselves smoked the cigarette.
Children in the smoking area of a restaurant are also smoking.
Children are more likely to smoke if one or more parents smoke.
No person should smoke in a house, car, taxi, train or bus when children are present.

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