Secondhand Smoke (Passive Smoking) – Are You Putting Your Family At Risk If You Don’t Quit Smoking? By Nigel Howell At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Smokers often complain that they are made to feel uncomfortable smoking around non-smokers. There are in fact many good reasons why non-smokers feel uncomfortable when they are in the company of somebody smoking and it isn’t just the bad smell.

The inhalation of secondhand smoke is referred to as passive smoking. Passive smoking consists of ‘sidestream’ smoke and ‘mainstream’ smoke. Sidestream smoke comes from the tip of the cigarette when it is being burnt. Mainstream smoke is smoke that a smoker has initially inhaled and exhaled from the cigarette, you in turn inhale a small proportion of this mainstream smoke. Cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals which are released when the cigarette is burnt in the form of gases and particles.

Given the trend in introducing laws which ban smoking in public, the problem of passive smoking has been reduced when you are in bars etc. It is however perfectly legal to smoke in your own home which means that your family are still at risk of passive smoking.

The milder side effects of passive smoking are there for us all to see and even smokers have most likely been on the receiving end at some point. These milder side effects include

• irritation of the eyes
• headache
• sore throat
• coughing
• dizziness
• the feeling of sickness, nausea

There are however more potentially serious risks to those who are exposed to passive smoke. According to the BBC website, “Non-smokers who are exposed to passive smoking in the home, have a 25% increased risk of heart disease and lung cancer”. This is a worrying statistic which every mother, father, husband or wife should be concerned about. Are you putting your loved ones’ lives at risk?

Some of the other claimed serious side effects other heart disease and lung cancer are

• miscarriage and birth defects
• asthma
• greater risk of developing allergies
• depression
• anxiety

There was much controversy when laws were first introduced to ban smoking in public places. There were claims of human rights violations and the potential negative impact on commerce. Commerce hasn’t been as affected as much as first feared which has reduced the impact that this argument can carry when used to prevent more laws from being introduced. Given the public’s support for these laws, how long will it be before they are calling for smoking to be banned in the home?

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