ALL Affected by Secondhand Smoke

Have you ever taken the time to think about how smoke can be affecting your life? For all the nonsmokers out there you probably assume you are fine. But did you know that secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of death, killing 53,000 nonsmokers in the United States each year? Or in other words, for every eight smokers that die from smoking related illnesses, one nonsmoker dies for similar reasons.

Secondhand Smoke (SHS) which is also called Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) or passive smoking is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of tobacco products (sidestream smoke) and the smoke exhaled by smokers (mainstream smoke). This essentially includes all exposure to smoke by nonsmokers. More than 50 compounds have been identified in tobacco smoke to be known or probable carcinogens and SHS contains more than 4,000 chemicals.

But how often are you really exposed? For campus students like us, we are exposed daily, whether we are conscious of it or not. The Surgeon General’s Report has shown that effects from even brief exposure, consisting of minutes to hours, can be as large as chronic active smoking. So while you may think because you are a nonsmoker you are fine, think again. That brief time you walk behind someone that is smoking you are increasing your risk of illness. Your health is affected every time you are exposed to secondhand smoke. In addition to causing irritation to the ears, eyes, throat, and nose, secondhand smoke exposure can cause lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmokers. Just a few statistics for the hazards that nonsmokers exposed to SHS face are:

-Increased risk of lung cancer, in which the risk increases consistently with increasing exposure. -A 25% increase of contracting ischemic heart disease.
-Twice the risk for age-related macular degeneration.
-Increased risk of developing breast cancer in younger, primarily pre-menopausal women. A 27% increase overall but a 68% increase for those who have yet to reach menopause.
-Regular exposure increases risk of stroke up to 50%
-Increased risk of metabolic syndrome- a disorder associated with excessive belly fat, which in turn increases one’s chance of heart disease, stroke and type II diabetes.

So the next time someone you know is smoking and you seem to be gaining weight, consider that maybe their SHS is the reason for your gain. Your poor health is a high price to pay for someone else’s dangerous habit.

While right now it may not be especially important for female college students, it may be down the road when they consider starting a family. Cigarette smoke is associated with increased risk for infertility, preterm delivery, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS risk is increased two-fold for those infants exposed to SHS. It has even been shown that SHS has the same effects on the growing fetus as if the mother was smoking it herself.

However, campus is not the only place where college students are exposed to SHS. We are exposed in restaurants, bars, and in the homes and cars of friends and loved ones that smoke. Just because a restaurant has a smoking and non-smoking section, does not mean that you are not exposed as you are still sharing the same air space. The Surgeon General has said that it may reduce but not eliminate the exposure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoke-filled rooms can have up to six times the air pollution of a busy highway. The argument for air filtration systems that will allow you to accommodate both smokers and nonsmokers has been left nothing short of unsubstantiated. All air filtration companies have agreed that it will not eliminate any risks and most ventilation systems have been shown to not significantly decrease rates either.

By: Emily Forsyth