What are the dangers of environmental tobacco smoke?
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), also known as passive smoking or secondhand smoke, occurs when non-smokers breathe in other people’s tobacco smoke. This includes mainstream smoke (smoke that is inhaled and then exhaled into the air by smokers) and sidestream smoke (smoke that comes directly from the burning tobacco in cigarettes). ETS contains the same harmful chemicals as the smoke that smokers inhale. In fact, because sidestream smoke is formed at lower temperatures, it has even larger amounts of some toxic and cancer-causing substances than mainstream smoke. There is strong evidence that ETS causes serious damage to human health. ETS causes about 3,000 lung cancer deaths and about 35,000 deaths from heart disease each year in healthy non-smokers who live with smokers. It can also affect non-smokers by causing asthma and other respiratory problems, eye irritation, headaches, nausea, and dizziness. Children whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer from asthma, pneumonia, bronc
