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Secondhand Tobacco Smoke & Children:
The Danger of Exposure
If you need any reason to stop smoking around your children other than the fact that you love them, we hope the following information will help convince you.
You as an adult make the decision to smoke, but your children do not make the decision to inhale it. According to the Surgeon General, children are hurt by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic (cancer-causing), including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are inhaling many of the same cancer-causing substances and poisons as smokers. Because their bodies are developing, infants and young children are especially vulnerable to the poisons in secondhand smoke. Both babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant and babies who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than babies who are not exposed to cigarette smoke. Mothers who are exposed to secondhand smoke while pregnant are more likely to have lower birth weight babies, which makes babies weaker and increases the risk for many health problems. Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk for many health problems.1
While so many smokers have done their part in helping to reduce nonsmoking Americans’ secondhand smoke exposure, there are still millions of Americans who continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes, workplaces, tourist attractions and during other events and activities.
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month – if you are a smoker and you still smoke around your children, please join us in helping children get a healthy start in life. Don’t smoke around them. Better yet, why not instead give your children a special gift by making the smart decision to stop smoking. Give your children the gift of life…theirs, and yours.
~MyParenTime.com
Twenty years ago, 1 the 1986 Surgeon General’s Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, concluded that secondhand smoke exposure was a cause of disease in nonsmokers. That Report, which was one of the first major reports to investigate this topic, concluded that secondhand smoke caused lung cancer among nonsmoking adults and several respiratory problems among children.
Since that Report was published, hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and several additional major reports on the health effects of secondhand smoke have been published, and the evidence on these health effects has become even stronger.
Facts
Secondhand smoke exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in adults and sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory problems in children.
There is NO risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure, with even brief exposure adversely affecting the cardiovascular and respiratory system.
Only smoke-free environments effectively protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure in indoor spaces.
Smoking is the single greatest avoidable cause of disease and death. In the report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General,2 the Surgeon General has concluded that:
1. Many millions of Americans, both children and adults, are still exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces despite substantial progress in tobacco control.
Supporting Evidence:
- Levels of a chemical called cotinine, a biomarker of secondhand smoke exposure, fell by 70 percent from 1988-91 to 2001-02. In national surveys, however, 43 percent of U.S. nonsmokers still have detectable levels of cotinine.
- Almost 60 percent of U.S. children aged 3-11 years—or almost 22 million children—are exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Approximately 30 percent of indoor workers in the United States are not covered by smoke-free workplace policies.
2. Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke.
Supporting Evidence:
- Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic (cancer-causing), including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide.
- Secondhand smoke has been designated as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has concluded that secondhand smoke is an occupational carcinogen.
3. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe asthma. Smoking by parents causes respiratory symptoms and slows lung growth in their children.
Supporting Evidence:
- Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are inhaling many of the same cancer-causing substances and poisons as smokers. Because their bodies are developing, infants and young children are especially vulnerable to the poisons in secondhand smoke.
- Both babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant and babies who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than babies who are not exposed to cigarette smoke.
- Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than unexposed babies, which increases the risk for many health problems.
- Among infants and children, secondhand smoke cause bronchitis and pneumonia, and increases the risk of ear infections.
- Secondhand smoke exposure can cause children who already have asthma to experience more frequent and severe attacks.
4. Exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer.
Supporting Evidence:
- Concentrations of many cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are higher in secondhand smoke than in the smoke inhaled by smokers.
- Breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time can have immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of a heart attack.
- Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 - 30 percent.
- Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20 - 30 percent.
5. The scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Supporting Evidence:
- Short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of a heart attack.
- Secondhand smoke contains many chemicals that can quickly irritate and damage the lining of the airways. Even brief exposure can result in upper airway changes in healthy persons and can lead to more frequent and more asthma attacks in children who already have asthma.
6. Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.
Supporting Evidence:
- Conventional air cleaning systems can remove large particles, but not the smaller particles or the gases found in secondhand smoke.
- Routine operation of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system can distribute secondhand smoke throughout a building.
- The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the preeminent U.S. body on ventilation issues, has concluded that ventilation technology cannot be relied on to control health risks from secondhand smoke exposure.
Note from MyParenTime.com:
Secondhand smoke puts people in situations where they have no choice but to breathe toxic air. If smokers are willing to put their own health at risk, why should innocent people suffer? If you choose to smoke, please take the lives of others into consideration. Please be respectful and light up far away from everyone else. But please do think about quitting and getting healthy...your family will be glad you did. :)
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Click here to read other articles by the Surgeon General.
1Copyright © the Surgeon General. The information in this article was adapted from the Surgeon General’s reports. Foreword Copyright © My ParenTime's Family Community.
2The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General, Copyright © U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. Articles reprinted with permission.
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