Effects Of Second Hand Smoke

9 Pages 2288 Words

Second-Hand Smoke Effects
Issues on smoking have arisen in the media once again, so much so that now the government is debating whether or not this drug should be banned in public places. Exposure to second-hand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States only behind alcohol and active smoking. There is a need to aggressively combat this health hazard. The attitudes of smokers who recognize this problem view the problem as a nuisance and continue to put others at risk. With the annoyance of the smell and smoke of cigarettes, it is obvious that advancement in banning smoking in public places must be professed. Everyone doubts that “firsthand” smoke is deadly to people’s health leading to lung cancer and heart diseases in adults; asthma and bronchitis in children. Now, the tobacco industry is onto the second-hand smoke. Several anti-smoking organizations are trying to turn smoking in public into a private activity that does not have to involve nonsmokers breathing second-hand smoke. What is even more important is that many of these organizations convinced a lot of smokers to cut back or quit completely. The problem of second-hand smoke is increasing because it is so common in our society. It makes second-hand smoke the third-ranking cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Even in the most elegant restaurants non-smokers are bombarded with exposure to second-hand smoke. “So-called” smoking sections are almost never useful because the smoke always drifts into the non-smoking eating area. Exposure to second-hand smoke causes several negative reactions on the body of all non-smokers regardless their physical well-being.
Second-hand smoke is the smoke exhaled from smokers which comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe. This smoke from the burning end of a cigarette, releases several thousand poisonous chemical compounds (Martin 1). Some of the toxic and cancer causing agents found i...