What is secondhand smoke?
• Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. • This mixture contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals, and many of which are strong irritants, including formaldehyde, cyanide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and nicotine. • Secondhand smoke has been classified as a Group A carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). • More specifically, EPA concluded that environmental tobacco smoke is a human lung carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers. • Secondhand smoke poses a health threat to those who breathe it. • Secondhand smoke is also referred to as Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS), involuntary smoking or passive smoking.
Secondhand Smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. This mixture contains more than 400 chemicals, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals and many of which are strong irritants. Exposure to secondhand smoke is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking.
When a person smokes near you, you breathe secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of the cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. When you breathe secondhand smoke, it is like you are smoking. Whether you are young or old, healthy or sick, secondhand smoke is dangerous. Secondhand smoke contains poisons. The chemicals found in secondhand smoke hurt your health and many are known to cause cancer. You breathe in thousands of chemicals when you are around someone who is smoking. No amount of secondhand smoke is safe. When you are around a person who is smoking, you inhale the same dangerous chemicals as he or she does. Breathing secondhand smoke can make you sick. Some of the diseases that secondhand smoke causes can kill you. Protect yourself: do not breathe secondhand smoke. But completely avoiding secondhand smoke is very hard to do. Most of us breathe it whether we know it or not. You can breathe secondhand smoke in restaurants, aro
Secondhand smoke, is the combination of two forms of smoke from burning tobacco products: sidestream smoke and mainstream smoke. Sidestream smoke, which makes up about half of all secondhand smoke, comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. Mainstream smoke is exhaled by the smoker. Exposure to secondhand smoke is also called involuntary smoking or passive smoking.
