Preview

Essay On Secondhand Smoke

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
454 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay On Secondhand Smoke
Secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is the smoke a smoker breathes out and that comes from the tip of burning cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. It contains about 4,000 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are dangerous; more than 50 are known to cause cancer. Anytime children breathe in secondhand smoke they are exposed to these chemicals.

The American Academy Pediatrics (AAP) has conducted research on the effects of thirdhand smoke and found that it is also harmful. Thirdhand smoke is the smoke left behind—the harmful toxins that remain in places where people have smoked previously. Thirdhand smoke can be found in the walls of a bar, upholstery on the seats of a car, or even a child's hair after a caregiver smokes near the child.

Your Developing Baby and Smoke
If you smoke or are exposed to secondhand smoke when you're
…show more content…
They miss many more school days too. Secondhand smoke can cause other symptoms including stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, eye irritation, and hoarseness.

Children with asthma are especially sensitive to secondhand smoke. It may cause more asthma attacks and the attacks may be more severe, requiring trips to the hospital.

Long-Term Effects of Secondhand Smoke
Children who grow up with parents who smoke are themselves more likely to smoke. Children and teens who smoke are affected by the same health problems that affect adults. Secondhand smoke may cause problems for children later in life including:

Poor lung development (meaning that their lungs never grow to their full potential)
Lung cancer
Heart disease
Cataracts (an eye disease)
Secondhand Smoke is Everywhere
Children can be exposed to secondhand smoke in many places. Even if there are no smokers in your home, your children can still be exposed to secondhand smoke. Places

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    10. Exposure to Secondhand Smoke causes diseases and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Secondhand smoke not only triggers allergy symptoms but can also lead to complications like sinusitis and bronchitis.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Preliminary PDHPE notes

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Parental smoking can have major effect on the health and wellbeing of their children or young people in general. Children with parents who smoke have a much higher rate of taking up smoking at some point in their lives.…

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Firstly, it has been proven in recent medical studies that first and second hand smoke from tobacco contains over 1000 dangerous chemicals such as tar and formaldehyde, that when released into the air and are inhaled into the lungs can cause a large list of serious health concerns such as cancer, heart attack and stroke. This poses a very high risk for any person within 25 metres of the workplace as second hand smoke may travel around the vicinity…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s been scientifically proven that 90% percent of all adult smokers started smoking when they were kids. Because they saw that their parents were smoking and they were influenced to smoke too. Another assumption, parents who smoke impact their children by kids having different behavior attitudes. Kids who were straight A students tend to have D’s and C’s in their classes after they were affected by…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Second Hand Smoke

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Secondhand smoke: When one breathes in smoke that comes from the end of a lit cigarette, cigar, or pipe (sidestream smoke) or that is exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke), you're inhaling almost the same amount of chemicals as the smoker breathes in when smoking…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research conducted during the past several decades clearly documents that exposure to secondhand smoke causes death and disease in nonsmokers. Some research indicates that secondhand smoke is more toxic and potentially more dangerous than the smoke that is directly inhaled by the smoker.14,15 Nationally, the US Environmental Protection Agency has found secondhand smoke to be a risk to public health and has classified secondhand smoke as a group A carcinogen, the most dangerous class of carcinogen.16 A recent report from the US surgeon general on the health consequences of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke concluded that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke and neither separating smokers from nonsmokers nor installing ventilation systems effectively eliminates secondhand smoke.9 In California, the state Air Resources Board declared secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant for which there is no known safe level of exposure.17…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smoking In Canada

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It impacts anyone surrounding them. Breathing in second-hand smoke can affect a person the same way it would if that person smoked, though sometime the effects are worse. Some people that have never touched a cigarette in their life die from a smoke related cause. In Canada, second-hand smoke kills over 1,000 people who do not smoke and in the world it takes the lives of 600,000 people annually. This is a high price to pay. Passive smoking or second-hand smoking is also commonly associated with lung cancer in adults and asthma in children. It can increase the risk of breast cancer, nasal sinus cavity cancer, lung cancer… the list goes on. The effect that second-hand smoke has on people is horrendous but the result it has on children is even more. Children exposed to second hand smoke can suffer from asthma attacks, respiratory diseases, infections, colds, bronchitis and more. Smoking causes harm to more people than just the smokers. It is an atrocity that some people have to pay the high price of poor health so that other citizens are able to continue their smoking addiction. Thus, smoking should be banned from…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Second hand smoke is just as harmful and sometimes more harmful to a defenseless small child. Over half of all children in the United States breathe in secondhand smoke; whether at home, in a car, or in public. This has caused more than three hundred thousand children to suffer from infections such as, bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections. Breathing in these toxic fumes can cause sudden infant death, asthma which can carry on with a child until adulthood, gum diseases, pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung problems. Another area for concern is breastfeeding an infant while smoking. Hopefully a mother would not sit and hold a baby while smoking but even walking outside to smoke and then breastfeeding is dangerous. While the effects are smaller than secondhand smoke the mothers could still pass some nicotine and other chemicals to the baby while breastfeeding. It takes about ninety five minutes for the body to eliminate the nicotine, so feeding the baby prior to that could harm her. Smoking while lactating can lead to early weaning, low milk production, and blocked let down reflexes. A mother who does the “right” thing by smoking outside can still jeopardize the child. Residue or smoke stuck to her clothing can irritate the child’s eyes and nose and cause respiratory issues. Smoking has been linked to colic in an infant as well. Infants are twenty four percent more likely to develop colic than an infant not exposed to secondhand smoking. A doctor might prescribe a nicotine patch as a last resort to help women quit smoking while pregnant as well. The effects of the nicotine is not as harmful as it would be if the mother was actually smoking. Children of all ages can suffer the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and often end up smoking themselves. Roughly ninety percent of adults that smoke started when they were just a kid. Because the nicotine is so addictive, nearly one thousand teenagers a day…

    • 1509 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Second Hand Smoke

    • 1923 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Secondhand smoke is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.…

    • 1923 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ban Smoking

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages

    But wait, that’s not all, Cigarettes aren’t just harmful to the smoker but everyone that is around the smoker. Second hand is involuntarily inhaling smoke by a nonsmoker from other people smoking around them. Second hand smoke from cigarettes is just as bad as the smoker itself. Each year, 53,000 people die from second hand smoke. An example would be, you living with your significant other that smokes around you, and in result would be that you have a thirty percent higher chance of you getting lung cancer. Statistics also show that seventeen percent of lung cancer is caused from growing up with parents that smoked. Would you want your own children to suffer from lung cancer at a young age?…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This subject affects your physical aspect of the health triangle and may cause fatalities. Secondhand smoke is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization. Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemical compounds. More than 250 of these chemicals are known to be harmful, and at least 69 are known to cause cancer. SHS has been linked to lung cancer. There is also some evidence suggesting it may be linked with childhood leukemia and cancers of the larynx (voice box), pharynx (throat), brain, bladder, rectum, stomach, and breast. This is a serious problem and has to be stooped.…

    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Over the years a person is likely to suffer from lung cancer and heart disease due to long term smoking (Cancer.org, 2016) and (Tobacco Free Florida, 2016). In addition, second hand smokers, especially children, are most affected by active smokers. Children are inclined to suffer making them prone to sicknesses, namely asthma that will affect their breathing, which may further lead to chest pains (Pattemore, 2013). In addition, in babies, this may lead to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or the increased risk of developing cancer in their adult stage of life.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smoking has a dual affect. It not only spoils the health of the smoker but also the person who takes the smoke in if he is standing near the smoker. This is called Second-hand smoke. Intake of second-hand smoke also causes cancer.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smoking doesn’t just have negative effects on the smoker – it also affects those nearby through secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke casues many of the same ailments as smoking does, such as coughing, bronchitis, and asthma attacks.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays