Secondhand smoke is the smoke that non-smokers inhale from active smokers, which can lead to serious health problems. Children are particularly vulnerable and even a small amount of smoke can affect them. Traditional and sidestream secondhand smoke are both harmful, with sidestream smoke being even more dangerous.
Secondhand smoke refers to the smoke that non-smokers inhale from active smokers. People who spend time around smokers breathe in the smoke either from the lit end of the active smoker’s cigarette or the smoke expelled by the active smoker. This is also called involuntary or secondhand smoke.
Exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to very serious health problems, such as respiratory disease, heart disease, and lung cancer. Cigarette smoke contains more than 400 chemicals and creates air pollution. Secondhand smoke is considered a preventable cause of death that has killed thousands of people exposed to cigarette smoke in homes, workplaces and/or public places.
Children are often passive smokers and suffer damage to their health that they would not have had if their parents had not smoked. Even a small amount of secondhand smoke can affect babies, children, and others. Even when smokers who smoke indoors try to smoke near an open window, there is still some smoke left that affects other people in the house. People who were exposed to secondhand smoke as children have a higher risk of getting cancer later in life, as well as asthma and respiratory infections.
Cigarette smoking is not healthy for everyone, and while active smokers choose to smoke, passive smokers do not. Exposure to smoke is particularly harmful to asthma sufferers, but it is harmful to all people and animals. Exposed people often experience headaches, sore throats, and eye irritation. Dizziness, coughing, and nausea may also occur.
Traditional smoking refers to smoke that enters the smoker’s body and is not exhaled. Exhaled smoke differs chemically, as it interacts with the tissues of the smoker’s body. Traditional secondhand smoke occurs when the non-smoker breathes in the smoke exhaled by the smoker. This type of smoke is harmful, but secondhand sidestream smoke has been shown to be even more harmful.
Sidestream passive smoking refers to the non-smoker who inhales smoke from the lit end of the smoker’s cigarette. Most of the smoke in a room will be of this type, which has a higher concentration of chemicals than the one exhaled. Cigarette smoke contains chemicals such as carbon monoxide, benzene and ammonia, and many of the chemicals in cigarettes are irritants or carcinogens.
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