How does second hand smoke affect you and your children
What is it?
• Second hand smoke (SHS) is a mixture of smoke breathed out by the smoker (mainstream smoke) and smoke released from the lit cigarette (sidestream smoke).• When tobacco is lit, thousands of chemicals are released in the smoke. Many of them are highly toxic. Two-thirds of the smoke from a cigarette is not inhaled by the smoker. This is called ‘sidestream smoke’.
• The practice of breathing in SHS is referred to as ‘passive smoking’.
Why is it so harmful?
• Second-hand smoke is the leading environmental cause of preventable death in New Zealand.• It is estimated that around 350 New Zealanders die because of exposure to other people’s tobacco smoke each year.
• Second-hand smoke contains cancer-causing and other toxic substances that are often in greater concentrations than in the smoke inhaled by the smoker.
• Contents in second-hand smoke include chemicals such as acetone (paint stripper), ammonia (toilet cleaner), hydrogen cyanide (rat killer), DDT (insecticide) and carbon monoxide (Car exhaust fumes).
• Second-hand smoke has been shown to cause coronary heart disease, lung cancer, acute stroke, eye and nasal irritation, nasal sinus canceriv, and makes certain medical conditions substantially worse, such as asthma, heart disease and emphysema.
What are the health effects of exposure to second-hand smoke?
• Exposure to second-hand smoke has been linked to increased rates of various cancers, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, respiratory disease, and reproductive and developmental effects.• Certain medical conditions are made substantially worse by tobacco smoke. Twenty-five percent of the population suffers from asthma, heart disease, emphysema, read more
