Secondhand smoke is a first-rate killer
Secondhand smoke contains more than 43 cancer-causing agents and many other toxins, including formaldehyde, cyanide, carbon monoxide and arsenic. To learn more about the chemical content of secondhand smoke, click here.
Surgeon General’s Report on dangers of secondhand smoke
A new report by the Surgeon General confirms that secondhand smoke is not only dangerous, it’s a killer. Each year in the United States, secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and tens of thousands of coronary heart disease deaths among people who have never smoked. The report warns that no amount of secondhand smoke exposure is safe.
Key findings from the report also reveal that exposure to secondhand smoke at home or work increases a nonsmoker’s risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke has immediate negative effects on the cardiovascular system and interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of a heart attack.
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.
- 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.
- Women married to a smoker have a 91 percent greater risk of heart disease.
Secondhand smoke exposure harms children
- If parents smoke around their children, the children can inhale the equivalent of 102 packs of cigarettes by age five.
- It is estimated that in Oregon, approximately 167,000 children are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.
- Nationwide, children exposed to secondhand smoke experience a total of seven million more days of missed school every year.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Secondhand smoke in bars poses a special hazard
- Secondhand smoke levels in bars can be between four and six times higher than in offices. Epidemiologic evidence suggests that there may be a 50 percent increase in lung cancer risk among food-service workers that is, in part, attributable to tobacco smoke exposure in the workplace.
- Smoky bars and casinos have up to 50 times more cancer-causing particles in the air than highways and city streets clogged with diesel trucks at rush hour.
- Casino and bar workers are exposed to particulate pollution at far greater levels than the government allows outdoors.
- A recent study found that air pollution levels were 82 percent lower on average in venues required by law to be smoke-free compared to those where smoking was permitted.
- It is estimated that secondhand smoke accounts for an increase in workplace death risk from 7 per 1,000 workers to 16 per 1,000.
- 84 percent of Oregonians agree that people should be protected from secondhand smoke.