Secondhand Smoke And Passive Smoking
For
many smokers, finding motivation to stop smoking is so hard because they genuinely enjoy it. Smoking relaxes them, and the health
implications seem a million years away, so why quit now? A great way to bring the problem into focus is to remind them of the impact of
passive smoking on the people around them.
Smoking doesn't just endanger you, it endangers everyone who breathes in your smoke. There have been many cases where the wife or husband of a smoker, despite never having lit up a cigarette in their lives, develops lung cancer just because of their spouse's habit. Even more tragic is when the spouse dies before the smoker themselves.
Passive Smoking & Health
Studies have shown that breathing in someone else's smoke has exactly the same effects on health as if you had smoked the cigarette yourself. The long list of diseases from our health page apply equally to both passive and active smokers. These include:
• Problems with Fertility
• Problems with Pregnancy
• Increased risk of Cancer
• Heart Disease
However, there are also short term health issues that can be induced by breathing in someone else's smoke. Respiratory problems such as asthma can be triggered by passive smoking, and those with serious allergies or hay fever can suffer runny noses, itchy eyes and coughing attacks when placed next to a smoker.
Even if you're single and don't smoke socially, cigarette smoke can still be a killer. For instance, your pets are just as likely to fall ill as a spouse would. Studies have shown that cats are twice as likely to get feline lymphoma in a smoker's household, while that increases to four times if there are two smokers.
Other Reasons to Dislike Passive Smoking
Even if you don't buy the health arguments (as some tobacco-sponsored scientists still don't), there are plenty more reasons why smokers should exercise restraint around other people. If you can't stop smoking, then at least be a considerate smoker.
The 'smoky atmosphere' was cited by some smokers as a reason not to ban cigarettes in bars and restaurants. Atmospheric it may be to someone who smokes 20 a day, but to a non-smoker this cloud of fumes is nothing but an annoyance. Even in a non-smoking area the smoke can waft over - indeed it seems incredible now that airplanes used to have smoking sections!
Equally unpleasant is the way the smoke seems to physically 'stick' to a non-smoker. The cigarette smoke clings to clothes, skin and hair, sometimes taking days to come out. Then there's the smell of the smoke and the physical annoyance of it being blown in your face.
Passive Smoking & Smoking Bans
Although public smoking bans are a relatively recent invention, private bans in people's homes have been around for centuries. The health impact of passive smoking has not always been understood, but the unpleasant odor of the smoke has always been recognised.
It was however the effect on public health that eventually prompted the spread of public smoking bans around the world. Authorities realised that smoking was having an effect on general health far beyond the individual smoker, and healthcare costs could be reduced by eliminating passive smoking from public life.
Passive Smoking & the Tobacco Companies
Now in the latter stages of its 50 year scientific rearguard action, Big Tobacco still doesn't recognise the health implications of passive smoking. Using a variety of terms such as "non-conclusive", "not definitive" and "insufficient evidence", these big corporations seek to dismiss legitimate science as flawed, biased research.
Hypocritically, the tobacco firms give grants to scientists to do their own research on passive smoking, research that invariably leans in their favor. In fact, of the studies that question the scientific merit of the passive smoking argument, there has not been a single one without some kind of connection to these firms.