Promoting a Smoke-Free Promoting a Smoke-Free EnvironmentEnvironmentChapter 20: Tobacco

Health Risks of Tobacco Health Risks of Tobacco SmokeSmoke

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)- or secondhand smoke, is air that has been contaminated by tobacco smoke.

ETS is composed of mainstream smoke, the smoke exhaled from the lungs of a smoker.

Sidestream smoke is the smoke from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar.

Health Risks of Tobacco Health Risks of Tobacco SmokeSmoke

Since mainstream smoke has been exhaled by a smoker, it contains lower concentrations of carcinogens, nicotine, and tar.

Sidestream smoke is more dangerous than mainstream smoke.

ETS from cigarettes, pipes, and cigars contain more than 4,000 chemicals.

Studies have shown that infants and young children who are exposed to ETS are more likely to develop asthma than their peers who are not exposed to ETS.

Health RisksHealth Risks

Nonsmokers Young Children

Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths from lung cancer every year.

ETS causes eye irritation, headaches, ear infections, and coughing in people of all ages.

Increases the risk of heart disease.

Children of smokers tend to have a higher incidence of sore throats, ear infections, and upper respiratory problems than children of nonsmokers.

Secondhand smoke can slow lung development. Children who live with smokers are more likely to have weaker lungs than children of nonsmokers.

Health Risks to Unborn Health Risks to Unborn Children and InfantsChildren and Infants

Smoking during pregnancy can seriously harm the developing fetus.

Nicotine passes through the placenta, constricting the blood vessels of the fetus.

Carbon monoxide reduced the oxygen levels in the blood of the mother and fetus.

This increases the risk of impaired fetal growth, spontaneous miscarriage and prenatal death, premature delivery, low birth weight, deformities, and stillbirths.

Health Risks to Unborn Health Risks to Unborn Children and InfantsChildren and Infants

Babies of mothers who smoked during pregnancy or who are exposed to ETS are more likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Infants exposed to ETS after birth are twice as likely to die of SIDS.

SIDSSIDS “SIDS is the sudden death of an infant under one

year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including performance of a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history. (Willinger et al, 1991).”

“In a typical situation parents check on their supposedly sleeping infant to find him or her dead. This is the worst tragedy parents can face, a tragedy which leaves them with a sadness and a feeling of vulnerability that lasts throughout their lives. Since medicine can not tell them why their baby died, they blame themselves and often other innocent people. Their lives and those around them are changed forever”.

http://sids.org/ndefinition.htm

Reducing Your RisksReducing Your RisksTry to establish smoke-free areas

in the house or make a rule that smokers go outside.

If a smoker cannot always go outside, air cleaners can help.

If you are visiting a home in which someone smokes, try to stay outside or in a different room as much as possible.

Creating a Smoke-Free Creating a Smoke-Free SocietySociety

When a smoker chooses to smoke, that person makes a decision that affects his or her health, and the health of others.

According to the Surgeon General, the only way to fully protect people from the damaging health effects of ETS is to prohibit smoking in public places.

One of the goals of Healthy People 2010 is to reduce tobacco use and the number of tobacco-related deaths.

http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/uih/http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/uih/uih_4.htmuih_4.htm

Healthy People 2010Healthy People 2010According to Healthy People 2010,

“Overall, the percentage of adolescents in grades 9 through 12 who smoked in the past month increased in the 1990s. Every day, an estimated 3,000 young persons start smoking. These trends are disturbing because the vast majority of adult smokers tried their first cigarette before age 18 years; more than half of adult smokers became daily smokers before this same age. Almost half of adolescents who continue smoking regularly will die eventually from a smoking-related illness.”

More Information on Healthy More Information on Healthy People 2010People 2010

http://www.healthypeople.gov/