His Daddy’s Eyes

“He has his daddy’s eyes, and his momma’s lungs. Secondhand smoke kills.” (Sunny Ntayombya)

Secondhand smoke is the combination of gases and small particles from lighting cigarettes, pipes, or cigars, and the smoke that is exhaled from someone smoking. There are no safe levels of secondhand smoke exposure. Any exposure to the chemicals is harmful. The only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke is to ban smoking from indoor places.

Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 3,400 lung cancer deaths each year in the U.S. in those who do not smoke and increases their risk of lung cancer by 20 to 30%. In the U.S., secondhand smoke is responsible for 46,000 heart disease-related deaths every year in nonsmokers.

Tobacco smoke has more than 4,000 chemical compounds (at least 250 are known to cause disease). Of the thousands of chemicals and toxins in secondhand smoke, more than 250 are known to be harmful and 69 cause cancer.  Pregnant women subject to secondhand smoke are more vulnerable to miscarriage, stillborn birth, low birth-weight for babies, and other pregnancy-related problems.

Exposure to secondhand smoke raises the risk (by as much as 30 percent) that others will get lung cancer and many other types of cancer. Secondhand smoke can lead to emphysema, and it’s bad for your heart. It raises your "bad" Low-Density Lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol, and damages the lining of your blood vessels. Eventually, these changes can make you more likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

The solution is to secondhand smoke is to avoid being around people who are smoking, and try to convince those around you who smoke to quit. Anyone who does smoke should do so outside as far away from other people as possible. Keeping children far away from smoke can help lower their chances of having ear infections, asthma attacks, and respiratory problems. Secondhand smoke is responsible for hundreds of thousands of new cases of pneumonia and bronchitis in babies 18 months and younger every year.

“We have a responsibility to protect public housing residents from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, especially the elderly and children who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases.” (Julian Castro) [i]

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[i] Sources used:

·        “11 Facts about Secondhand Smoke” by dosomething.com

·        “How to Lower Your Elevated LDL Cholesterol” by Marie Louise Brumit

·        “The Effects of Secondhand Smoke” Reviewed by William Blahd