What is Secondhand smoke?
Second smoke is the smoke breathed out by smokers and the smoke from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe. The smoke from the burning end of a cigarette has many harmful chemicals.
Secondhand smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS); exposure to secondhand smoke is called involuntary smoking or passive smoke.
Why should you worry about secondhand smoke?
Secondhand Smoke causes about 3,000 deaths each year from lung cancer in
people who don´t smoke.
Secondhand Smoke causes irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat.
Secondhand Smoke can also irritate the lungs, leading to coughing, excessive
phlegm and chest discomfort.
Secondhand Smoke has been linked with the onset of chest pain may affect
the heart, according to some studies.
Secondhand Smoke especially hurts Children!
Children who breathe Secondhand Smoke are more likely to suffer from pneumonia,
bronchitis, and other lung diseases.
Children who breathe Secondhand Smoke have more inner infections
Children who breathe Secondhand Smoke are more likely to develop asthma
Children who have asthma and who breathe Secondhand Smoke have more asthma
attacks
There are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 case every year of infections,
such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and children under 18 months
of age who breathe Secondhand Smoke. These result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations.
Source: "Protecting yourself & your family from ... Secondhand
Smoke" by the American Lung Association
* Each cigarette shortens your life by 11 minutes.
* Each pack shortens your life by 3 ½ hours.
* Each week, you lose a day of your life.
* You are likely to die 14 years earlier than if you hadn’t smoked.
Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, you kill some of the air sacks in your lungs, called alveoli. These air sacks are where the oxygen that you breathe in is transferred into your blood. The alveoli will not grow back. So if you destroy them, you permanently have destroyed part of your lungs.
Smoking paralyses the cilia that line your lungs. Cilia are little hair like structures that move back and forth to sweep particles out of your lungs. When you smoke, the cilia can not move and can not do their job. So dust, pollen, and other things that you inhale they sit in your lungs and build up. Also, there are a lot of particles in smoke that get into your lungs. Since your cilia are paralyzed because of the smoke and can not clean them out, the particles sit in your lungs and form tar.
There are only two structures in the adult human body which, under normal circumstances, lack a blood supply in adult life. These are the cornea of the eye (which gets its nutrition from tears) and the intervertebral disc (which obtains its nutrition from the convection and diffusion of nutrients from the end plates of adjacent vertebral bodies).
By smoking cigarettes nicotine and carbon monoxide infuse into the blood stream and then into body tissues. These poisons have a particularly destructive effect on intervertebral discs (and corneas) because of their precarious nutritional status.
Smokers have more wrinkles in their skin. Smokers tend to have particularly bad wrinkles around the mouth and eyes. smokers in their forties have as many wrinkles as nonsmokers in their sixties do. smoking affects the development of wrinkles even among people in their twenties and thirties.
Secondhand smoke is a personal and public health hazard. Exposure to secondhand smoke is responsible for an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among nonsmokers in the U.S. each year, and linked to 36,000 deaths from heart disease annually. Passive smoking, in fact, is our country's third leading preventable cause of death after direct smoking and alcohol.
Exposing a child to secondhand smoke is a form of child abuse. Although secondhand smoke is dangerous to everyone who comes in contact with it, fetuses, infants, and children are at greatest risk. This is because secondhand smoke can damage developing organs, such as lungs and brain.
The smoke coming from the end of the burning cigarette contains much greater concentrations of dangerous poisons and cancer-causing substances than the smoke exhaled by the smoker.
Your risk of developing cancer from secondhand smoke is about 100 times greater than from outdoor cancer-causing pollutants.
In the past several decades, it has become clear that it also is dangerous to be exposed to someone else's cigarette smoke. Exposure to such secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking, can boost the risk of lung cancer.
NSW Health Factsheet (Part 1)
There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. (1)(2) Nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide are well known. Nicotine is the addictive drug that keeps you coming back for more. Tar is the black, sticky substance that damages your lungs. Carbon monoxide is the gas that hitches a ride on your red blood cells and takes the place of some of the oxygen in your bloodstream.
What’s in tobacco smoke?
There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. 1,2 Nicotine, tar
and carbon monoxide are well known. Nicotine is the addictive drug that
keeps you coming back for more. Tar is the black, sticky substance that
damages your lungs. Carbon monoxide is the gas that hitches a ride on your
red blood cells and takes the place of some of the oxygen in your bloodstream.
Some of the other chemicals found in cigarettes (and some of their other
uses) are:
ammonia (household cleaning agent)
acetone (nail polish remover)
naphthalene (mothballs)
methanol (rocket fuel)
formaldehyde (which preserves the dead)
phenol (disinfectant)
hydrogen cyanide
metals (76 metals including arsenic, cadmium, nickel)
radioactive compounds (polonium-210 and potassium-40)
acetic acid (vinegar)
toluene (industrial solvent)
pesticides.
What’s nicotine?
Nicotine is a chemical substance found in tobacco leaves. Addiction to nicotine
is what keeps you smoking. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine.
How does nicotine work?
From the moment that you inhale tobacco smoke, it takes four seconds for
the nicotine to reach your blood stream and about ten seconds to reach the
brain. Once the nicotine has attached itself to special sites in the brain,
many relaxing chemicals are released. But this effect only lasts for a short
time and then the addicted smoker needs to ‘top up’ their nicotine.
One of the reasons people continue to smoke is because they enjoy the effect
of these relaxing chemicals being released by the brain.
Why is nicotine a problem for health?
The worst problem for health caused by nicotine is that it is so addictive.
Most regular smokers would prefer not to smoke, and only continue because
they are addicted to nicotine. Smoking tobacco accounts for the largest
proportion of preventable illness and death in Australia. Immediate effects
of nicotine on the body include increased heart rate and blood pressure
and constriction of blood vessels. Over time, ingestion of nicotine from
smoking combines with carbon monoxide to damage the lining of blood vessels
and make blood platelets stickier. In combination these effects contribute
to the development of heart disease.
Although nicotine is among the most toxic and fast acting of all poisons, the dose from smoking is too low to cause acute poisoning (smoking poisons you slowly). However, there is a serious risk for children who ingest cigarettes and care should be taken with cigarettes and extinguished butts, which contain concentrated nicotine. Before developing a tolerance to nicotine, the smoker may experience mild effects of nicotine toxicity. The nicotine in nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, such as the patch, gum, lozenge, sublingual tablet or inhaler is safe if used according to the product directions. The average dose of nicotine from NRT is about one third to one half of that obtained from smoking. A person who is dependent on nicotine is extremely unlikely to experience any toxic effect from using NRT.
How does your body get rid of nicotine?
Most of the nicotine (80 per cent) is broken down in the liver.
Nicotine is also filtered from the blood by the kidneys and removed in urine.
What is tar and why is it a problem for health?
The word ‘tar’ describes the particulate matter which, generated
by burning tobacco, forms a component of cigarette smoke. Each particle
is composed of a large variety of chemicals consisting mainly of nitrogen,
oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and a wide range of volatile
compounds.
In condensed form, tar is a sticky brown substance that is the main cause of lung and throat cancer in smokers. Tar can also cause unsightly yellow-brown stains on fingers and teeth. Some tar is exhaled, some is coughed up, and some is absorbed by the lungs, which can cause lung cells to die. Cigarette smoke damages the ‘cilia’ (fine hairs that line the upper airways to protect against infection). When cilia are damaged, tar can penetrate further into the lungs.
Reference Column 3 on this page to read Part 2 of NSW Health Factsheet
Ciggyfree Information Resources Section II
*This page will be moving to ODAT section soon!
Quick At Home Check of Lung Function
The Match Test
Light a match in a draft-free room, let it burn halfway, hold it 6 inches from your mouth, and try to blow it out with your mouth wide open. If you can't, your lungs may not be in the best condition.
Measure Your Chest
Measure your chest at rest. Men should measure the chest around the nipples; women should measure just under the breasts.
Take a full breath and measure again while holding the breath. The second
measurement should be at least 1.5 inches more than the first one. If
your chest expands less than 1.5 inches with a deep breath, your lungs
may be weak and you should see your doctor.
Time Your Exhalation
Take a deep breath, then time yourself while you exhale it as fast as possible. Time only the exhalation, not the inhalation. If it takes longer than 3 to 4 seconds to exhale, you may have a lung disorder and shouldsee your doctor.
Source: Weiss RJ, Sharpe-Subak G, and the editors of Consumer Reports
Books: The Columbia University School of Public Health 40+ Guide to Good
Health. Yonkers, NY, Consumer Reports Books, 1993.
Succeed in putting the butts behind you with these tips
A Hard Habit
For all the intense efforts to reduce smoking in America over the past
two decades, the progress has not been stellar. Today one in four men
and one in five women still smoke.
For those who never smoked, this is a befuddling fact. Don't smokers understand
that cigarettes are the number one killer in America, that they dramatically
increase risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure,
and almost every other health concern, small or large? How could any habit
be worth this?
Truth is, most smokers do understand. They also understand the huge financial
toll of smoking, with a pack of 20 cigarettes costing $7 in some areas
(imagine: $2,500 spent a year on cigarettes by pack-a-day smokers -- often
people of only modest resources). Then why do millions still smoke? In
good part, because the nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive. In
good part, because smoking provides psychological comfort to some people.
Perhaps most of all, because quitting is so hard.
Researchers and businesses have responded strongly to the last point.
Never have there been so many tools, systems, and programs available for
quitting smoking. And with every month that passes, there is more research
showing the benefits of quitting, and the drawbacks of not quitting. So
if you smoke, consider again whether it is time, finally, to quit. If
yes, you'll need to think through the best approach, perhaps working with
your doctor or an expert. But the following 25 tips will
help you succeed.
1. Make an honest list of all the things you like about
smoking. Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper and write them
on one side; on the other side make a list of all the things you dislike,
such as how it can interfere with your health, work, family, etc., suggests
Daniel Z. Lieberman, M.D., director of the Clinical Psychiatric Research
Center at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Think about the list over time, and make changes. If you are brave enough,
get feedback from family and friends about things they don't like about
your use of cigarettes. When the negative side outweighs the positive
side, you are ready to quit.
2. Then make another list of why quitting won't be easy.
Be thorough, even if the list gets long and discouraging. Here's the important
part: Next to each entry, list one or more options for overcoming that
challenge. For instance, one item might be: "Nicotine is an addictive
drug." Your option might be: "Try a nicotine replacement alternative."
Another reason might be: "Smoking helps me deal with stress."
Your option might be: "Take five-minute walks instead." The
more you anticipate the challenges to quitting, and their solutions, the
better your chance of success.
3. Set a quit date and write a "quit date contract"
that includes your signature and that of a supportive witness.
4. Write all your reasons for quitting on an index card
and keep it near you at all times. Here are some to get you started: "My
daughter, my granddaughter, my husband, my wife..." You get the idea.
5. As you're getting ready to quit, stop buying cartons of cigarettes. Instead, only buy a pack at a time, and only carry two or three with you at a time (try putting them in an Altoids tin). Eventually you'll find that when you want a smoke, you won't have any immediately available. That will slowly wean you down to fewer cigarettes.
6. Keep a list of when you smoke, what you're doing at the time, and how bad the craving is for a week before quitting to see if specific times of the day or activities increase your cravings, suggests Gaylene Mooney, chair of the American Association for Respiratory Care's Subcommittee on Smoking and Tobacco-Related Issues. Then arrange fun, unique things to do during those times, like some of the ones we recommend here.
7. Prepare a list of things to do when a craving hits. Suggestions include: take a walk, drink a glass of water, kiss your partner or child, throw the ball for the dog, wash the car, clean out a cupboard or closet, have sex, chew a piece of gum, wash your face, brush your teeth, take a nap, get a cup of coffee or tea, practice your deep breathing, light a candle. Make copies of the list and keep one with you at all times so when the craving hits, you can whip out the list and quickly do something from it.
Reduce and Replace
8. When your quit date arrives, throw out anything that
reminds you of smoking. That includes all smoking paraphernalia -- leftover
cigarettes, matches, lighters, ashtrays, cigarette holders, even the lighter
in your car.
9. Instead of a cigarette break at work, play a game
of solitaire on your computer. It takes about the same time and is much
more fun (although, like cigarettes, it can get addictive). If your company
prohibits games like that, find another five-minute diversion: a phone
call, a stroll, or eating a piece of fruit outdoors (but not where smokers
congregate).
10. Switch to a cup of herbal tea whenever you usually
have a cigarette. That might be at breakfast, midmorning, or after meals.
The act of brewing the tea and slowly sipping it as it cools will provide
the same stress relief as a hit of nicotine.
11. Switch your cigarette habit for a nut habit -- four
nuts in their shell for every cigarette you want to smoke. This way, you're
using your hands and your mouth, getting the same physical and oral sensations
you get from smoking.
12. Carry some cinnamon-flavored toothpicks with you.
Suck on one whenever a cig craving hits.
13. Make an appointment with an acupuncturist. There's some evidence that auricular acupuncture (i.e., needles in the ears) curbs cigarette cravings quite successfully, says Ather Ali, N.D., a naturopathic physician completing a National Institutes of Health-sponsored postdoctoral research fellowship at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Derby, Connecticut. You can even do it yourself by taping "seeds" (small beads) onto the acupuncture points and squeezing them whenever cravings arise.
14. Swing by the health food store for some Avena sativa (oat)
extract. One study found that, taken at 1 milliliters four times
daily, it helped habitual tobacco smokers significantly decrease the number
of cigarettes they smoked.
15. Think of difficult things you have done in the past.
Ask people who know you well to remind you of challenges you have successfully
overcome, says Dr. Lieberman. This will give you the necessary self-confidence
to stick with your pledge not to smoke.
16. To minimize cravings, change your routine. Sit in
a different chair at breakfast or take a different route to work. If you
usually have a drink and cigarette after work, change that to a walk.
If you're used to a smoke with your morning coffee, switch to tea, or
stop at Starbucks for a cup of java -- the chain is smoke-free.
17. Tell your friends, coworkers, boss, partner, kids,
etc., how you feel about situations instead of bottling up your emotions.
If something makes you angry, express it instead of smothering it with
cigarette smoke. If you're bored, admit to yourself that you're bored
and find something energetic to do instead of lighting up.
State of Mind
18. If you relapse, just start again. You haven't failed.
Some people have to quit as many as eight times before they are successful.
19. Put all the money you're saving on cigarettes in
a large glass jar. You want to physically see how much you've been spending.
Earmark that money for something you've always dreamed of doing, but never
thought you could afford, be it a cruise to Alaska or a first-class ticket
to visit an old college friend.
20. Switch to decaf until you've been cigarette-free
for two months. Too much caffeine while quitting can cause the jitters.
21. Create a smoke-free zone. Don't allow anyone to use
tobacco in your home, car, or even while sitting next to you in a restaurant.
Make actual "No Smoking" signs and hang them around your house
and in your car.
22. Find a healthy snack food you can keep with you and
use in place of cigarettes to quench that urge for oral gratification.
For instance, try pistachio nuts, sunflower seeds, sugarless lollipops
or gum, carrot or celery sticks. The last ones are best if you are concerned
about weight gain.
23. Picture yourself playing tennis. Or go play tennis.
British researchers found volunteers trying to quit smoking were better
able to ignore their urges to smoke when they were told to visualize a
tennis match.
24. Quit when you're in a good mood. Studies find that
you're less likely to be a successful quitter if you quit when you're
depressed or under a great deal of stress.
25. Post this list in a visible location in your house.
Whenever you're tempted to light up, take a look at all the ways smoking
can damage your health:
--Increases risk of lung, bladder, pancreatic, mouth, esophageal,
and other cancers, including leukemia
--Reduces fertility
--Contributes to thin bones
--Affects mental capacity and memory
--Reduces levels of folate, low levels of which can increase the risk
of heart disease, depression, and Alzheimer's disease
--Increases likelihood of impotence
--Affects ability to smell and taste
--Results in low-birth-weight, premature babies
--Increases risk of depression in adolescents
--Increases risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure
--Increases risk of diabetes
--Increases your child's risk of obesity and diabetes later in life if
you smoked while pregnant
Test your level of dependence on cigarettes
Take Care of Your Lungs!
For cutting-edge, evidence-based tools designed to help specific audiences quit smoking and remain smoke-free, look no further. They can be viewed online, downloaded in PDF format, or ordered online by selecting the appropriate link below.
http://www.smokefree.gov/info.html
Smoking
and Your Lungs
How
Smoking Hurts Your Lungs
Smoking
Cessation Benefits
Emphysema
Foundation
Your lungs reath in anywhere from 15 to 25 times each and every minute of your life (multiply that over a lifetime!) The lungs take carbon dioxide and exchanges this gas for oxygen.
Nicotine -- addictive drug or "flavorant"?
Slowing the Breakdown of Dopamine
MPG Clip (330K): A journey down the collapsing airway passages of deteriorating alveoli. ~French Lung Association
NSW Health Factsheet (Part 2)
What is carbon monoxide and why is it a problem for health?
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that competes with oxygen in the blood. This is the same gas that is found in car exhaust fumes.
Carbon monoxide binds to red blood cells, making it harder for the body to carry oxygen to the muscles and organs.
In large quantities, carbon monoxide is rapidly fatal. Smokers can have up to 10 times the amount of carbon monoxide in their bloodstream than non-smokers.
Heavy smokers may have the oxygen carrying ability of their blood cut by as much as 15%.
Smoking in pregnancy can lead to a dramatic reduction in the amount of oxygen available to the developing baby.
Other chemicals and additives
As tobacco is not classified as a food or drug in Australia, there are
no standards or controls on what may be used in the growing and production
of tobacco, including additives and agricultural chemicals. Herbicides,
insecticides, fungicides, fertilisers and other agricultural chemicals are
routinely used in tobacco growing. Additives are added to cigarettes in
the manufacturing process to: add flavour, including sugar, honey, liquorice,
cocoa, and chocolate liqueur to lessen the harshness of the smoke
lessen the irritating effects of smoke. Menthol and eugenol numb the throat
change the chemistry of nicotine.
Ammonium salts and acetaldehyde (in burnt sugar) increase nicotine’s addictive potential change the chemistry of smokers’ brains to make them more receptive to nicotine.
There are a number of problems with additives:
Additives such as sugar and honey might seem harmless because we are used
to eating them, but when additives in cigarettes are burnt, they can change
into different chemicals, some of which are toxic. For example, liquorice
and sugar produce cancer-causing chemicals when burnt. Also, these substances
are inhaled into the lungs, which are delicate and much more ulnerable to
harm than the stomach and intestines.
The health effects of additives on smokers are not made public by the tobacco companies, and many may not be known at all. Some additives make tobacco smoke less harsh and taste better. It may make it easier for children to learn to smoke, and make smoking more agreeable to smokers.
There is no such thing as a ‘safer’ cigarette
or ‘healthier’ tobacco. All tobacco smoke is damaging to health.
The best way to prevent exposure to the chemicals in tobacco smoke is to
avoid exposure to tobacco smoke.
Reference Column 1 on this page to read Part 1 of NSW Health Factsheet
Quit Smoking Benefits
For the vast majority of smokers, quitting smoking is the single best thing
they can do to improve the length and quality of their lives.
The health benefits of quitting occur for all types of tobacco users, men
and women, young and old. Even those who already have smoking-related problems
such as heart disease can benefit. When you give up tobacco, your body starts
to renew itself as early as the first day of quitting.
After 8 hours:
Carbon monoxide in your body drops
Oxygen level in your blood increases to normal
After 2 days:
Your sense of smell and taste will improve. You will enjoy your food more.
Your risk of heart attack begins to decrease.
After 3 - 4 days:
Bronchial tubes relax and your lung capacity will have increased, making
breathing easier.
After 2 weeks:
Blood flow improves; nicotine has passed from your body
Within 2 weeks to 3 months:
Circulation will improve, making walking and running easier; lung
functioning increases up to 30%
Within 6 to 9 months:
You'll experience less coughing, sinus congestion, tiredness and shortness
of breath
After 1 year:
: Your risk of heart disease will be about half of what it would have been
if you continued to smoke
After 5 years:
Your risk of stroke will be substantially reduced; within 5 to 15 years
after quitting, it becomes about the same as a non-smokers.
After 10 years:
Your risk of dying from lung cancer will be about half of what it would
have been if you had continued to smoke.
Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and
pancreas will also decrease.
Within 15 years:
Your risk of dying from a heart attack is equal to a person who never
smoked.
Other benefits of quitting
Although reducing your chances of premature death and illness
is important, they aren't the only benefits of quitting smoking.
You'll be in control - cigarettes will no longer control
you or your lifestyle.
Your self-image and self-confidence will improve.
You'll feel proud of your ability to overcome something
so challenging.
You will have more energy to do the things you love.
And then, of course, the other stuff:
Your smoking will no longer be a bad influence on younger children
Think of the money you will save by not buying tobacco, lighters, ashtrays,
matches and so on.
You will look and feel younger. Smokers are more likely
to wrinkle at an
earlier age and have deeper wrinkles.
Your clothes may last longer (no chance of accidentally burning a hole).
Quitting smoking reduces bad breath. Many people don't
like kissing smokers because of the smell.
No more nagging from people asking when you're going to quit.
No more yellow teeth or fingers or bad breath.
Regardless of your sport or activity, your performance, endurance and
ability to play the game will improve after you quit smoking.
No need to worry about which restaurant you go to or whether you can smoke
in a particular place. No more looks of disapproval or feelings of guilt.
It's never too late to quit smoking.
*
Researchers at the University of British Columbia are conducting research on people’s experiences quitting smoking and their thoughts about nicotine cravings.
Participation involves filling out a 50-minute online questionnaire and
a two-minute follow-up survey one month later.
(New and recent quits.)
Tobacco increases the production of the so-called rheumatoid factor (RF) and decreases the levels of the GSTM1 gene. The GSTM1 is a gene which is important in the detoxification process of the carcinogen agents presented in tobacco.
Chatrooms
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