Tobacco Prevention

Second Hand Smoke

The 2006 Surgeon General's Report on secondhand smoke concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.¹ Short term exposure to secondhand smoke can potentially increase the risk of heart attacks; a 2009 report by the Institute of Medicine confirmed that secondhand smoke is a cause of heart attack and concluded that relatively brief exposure to secondhand smoke could trigger a heart attack.²

Since 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified secondhand smoke as a "Group A" carcinogen, which means there is no safe level of exposure. Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke produced by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Secondhand smoke contains a complex mixture of over 200 poisons, including more than 43 chemicals that are know cancer-causing agents. Below are listed a few of the lethal combination of chemicals:

Secondhand Smoke Is Deadly.

• Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 800 deaths a year in Oregon.³
• According to Oregon physician death certificate reports, tobacco contributed to 6,921 deaths in Oregon in 2005 (22 percent of all deaths).⁴
• Nationwide, secondhand smoke causes approximately 53,000 deaths per year due to lung cancer, heart disease and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).⁵
• Approximately 60 percent of people in the United States have physical evidence of secondhand smoke exposure.⁶
• Research into previously secret tobacco industry documents reveals that research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that secondhand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed these findings for two decades. ⁷

Secondhand Smoke Increases Risk of Heart Disease and Lung Cancer.

• As few as 30 minutes of secondhand smoke exposure can impair coronary circulation in a non-smoker.⁸
• One study found that secondhand smoke increases the risk of heart disease among non-smokers by as much as 60 percent.⁹
• Breathing secondhand smoke can have immediate adverse effects on your blood and blood vessels, potentially increasing the resik of a heart attack.¹⁰
  • Breathing secondhand smoke interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of heart attack.
  • For some of these negative effects the immediate impact of even short exposures to secondhand smoke appears to be almost as large as that observed in active smokers.
  • Even a short time in a smoky room can cause your blood platelets to become stickier.
  • Even brief secondhand smoke exposure can damage the lining of the blood vessels.
• Constant exposure to secondhand smoke - in the workplace or home - nearly doubles the risk of having a heart attack, according to a landmark study of more than 32,000 women.¹¹
• Studies suggest that non-smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke are 20 to 30 percent more likely to develop lung cancer.¹²
• Women married to a smoker have a 91 percent greater risk of heart disease.¹¹

Secondhand Smoke Exposure Harms Children.

• Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke among pregnant women can cause spontaneous abortions, ectopic pregnancies, still births, low-birth weight babies, and other pregnancy and delivery complications that require neonatal intensive care.¹³
• If parents smoke around their children, the children can inhale the equivalent of 102 packs of cigarettes by age five.¹⁴
• It is estimated that in Oregon, approximately 167,000 children are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.¹⁵
• Nationwide, children exposed to secondhand smoke experience a total of seven million more days of missed school every year.¹⁶

Secondhand Smoke Relates To Many Illnesses In Children.

• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): The rate of SIDS is higher in babies exposed to secondhand smoke. SIDS is the second leading cause of infant deaths in Oregon.¹⁷

• Asthma: Children who grow up with smokers in the family are more likely to have asthma by the age of six than children living in non-smoking households.¹⁸

• Respiratory disease: The rate of bronchitis, pneumonia, colds and other respiratory infections is four times higher in children exposed to secondhand smoke than those living in smoke-free environments.¹⁷

• Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children under 18 months of age across the United States each year.¹⁹

• It is estimated that, in the United States each year, secondhand smoke exposure results in the hospitalization of 7,500 infants and 15,000 children due to lower respiratory tract infections and cuases 430 SIDS deaths in the U.S. annually.¹⁹

• Secondhand smoke exposure can cause the buildup of fluid in the middle ear, a condition that results in 790,000 physician office visits per year.²⁰
• Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in the 400,000 to 1,000,000 children in the U.S. with asthma, a serious, chronic lung disease.
• In the United States, 21 million children (35 percent) live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis. ²¹
• Approximately 50 to 75 percent of children in the U.S. have detectable levels of cotinine, a product of nicotine, in their blood.²²

Secondhand Smoke Affects the Workplace.

• Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in personal residences of smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.²³
• In a study it was found that wordplace productivity increased and absenteeism decreased among former smokers when compared with current smokers.²⁴
• The National Cancer Institute found that being employed in a workplace where smoking is prohibited is associated with a reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked per day and an increase in the success rate of smokers who are attempting to quit.²⁵

Find out the sources to the above bulleted points.