Why Is Passive Smoking Dangerous?
Passive smoking, also known as secondhand smoking or environmental tobacco smoking, poses a serious health hazard to people who do not smoke but are exposed to dangerous chemicals by smokers around them.CarcinogensThere are more than 60 chemicals in tobacco smoke that are known or thought to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing). According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), there are about 3,400 deaths from lung cancer in the United States every year among people exposed to secondhand smoke.Heart DiseaseHeart disease is one of the major concerns in passive smoking. The ACS and the National Cancer Institute report that secondhand smoke leads to 46,000 deaths in the U.S.
