The Adverse Effects Of Secondhand Smoke On Your Health

The Adverse Effects Of Secondhand Smoke On Your Health

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The health hazards of exposure to secondhand smoke are well recognized by experts in the healthcare field. Secondhand smoke is that environmental tobacco smoke resulting from burning tobacco. There are two forms of secondhand or passive smoke, mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke. Mainstream smoke is that which a smoker exhales. Sidestream smoke is the smoke which comes directly from the burning tobacco product. Either form unfortunately is harmful to innocent individuals who involuntarily engage in passive smoking as a result of it the tobacco pollution caused by the willful smoker.

If it were not bad enough that nicotine which is a powerfully addictive substance with harmful health effects is present in passive smoke, tobacco also produces more than 4000 chemicals and 250 of them are toxic. Worse yet, 50 of the chemicals in passive smoke are felt to be carcinogenic or cancer-causing. Some of those carcinogenic chemicals are as follows:

Benzene -- A component of gasoline

Formaldehyde -- A chemical used to embalm corpses

Hydrogen cyanide -- A highly poisonous gas used in chemical weapons

Carbon monoxide A gas in automobile exhaust

In 2006 the Surgeon General issued a report concluding that secondhand smoke can kill and that there is no safe amount of passive smoke. The report also concluded that the more passive smoke one breathes in, the greater the health risks.

Some alarming statistics relating to secondhand smoke exposure are as follows:

In the United States alone 126 million people non-smokers are exposed to passive smoke at home and/or at work.

In the United States 50,000 people per year die because of exposure to passive smoke.

In the United States approximately 3000 deaths per year occur because of lung disease in non-smokers caused by secondhand smoke exposure.

Secondhand smoke exposure increases non-smokers risk of developing lung cancer by between 20% and 30% and their risk of developing heart disease by 25% to 30%.

Exposure to passive smoke results in the development of respiratory conditions such as pneumonia and bronchitis in between 150,000 and 300,000 children under the age of 18 months, of which between 7,500 and 15,000 require hospitalization.

More than 40% of children who require visits to emergency rooms for severe asthma attacks live in homes where smoking occurs.

Given these alarming facts and statistics about the harmful effects of exposure to secondhand smoke, it is important to know your degree of exposure if you are a non-smoker in a home where someone smokes or if you are possibly exposed to passive smoke in the workplace.

Thanks to an instant result quantitative nicotine test kit that can be used in the home it is now possible to determine not only if you are exposed to passive smoke, but also your degree of exposure. There is also a quantitative test kit designed for professional use. Each kit comes in two types. One requires the use of a urine specimen for testing. The other uses saliva.

By determining your level of environmental tobacco exposure you can then act accordingly to address one of lifes serious health hazards.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purpose only and is not intended to be a replace medical consultation with a qualified professional. The author encourages Internet users to be careful when utilizing medical information obtained from the Internet and to consult your physician before make decisions that can affect your health or if you are unsure about your medical condition.

About the Author:
To obtain quantitative nicotine test kits to determine your degree of secondhand smoke exposure and to learn more about them visit http://www.proactivehealthoutlet.com.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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