Effects Of Second Hand Smoke

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n second-hand smoke include hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde and benzene. Second-hand smoke has several other names such as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), involuntary smoke, and passive smoke (Martin 1). It is not easy to avoid this smoke because several people in the United States are smoking several packs daily. The Environmental Protection Agency now estimates that fifty thousand Americans die annually because of it (Martin 1). Smokers inhale mainstream smoke directly from their cigarettes and when they exhale, they fill the air with second-hand smoke, which nonsmokers breathe.
Nonsmokers also breathe in side stream smoke (smoke from the burning tip of the cigarette). Together, second-hand smoke and side stream smoke make something called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), which contains enough toxic chemicals to cause lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmokers who breathe it (Smoking-effects of ….Children 1). Nonsmokers absorb nicotine, carbon particles, carcinogens, and other toxic chemicals when they breathe it. Smoking or being around second-hand smoke can cause more harm to children more rapidly because of their still developing (Smoking-effects of ….Children 1).
The hazards of passive smoking start before taking a single breath. When a pregnant woman inhales smoke, the poisonous fumes get trapped into their blood streams with mere second, which eventually reaches the fetus (Secondhand Smoke... 4) This can cause the smokers’ baby to have a low birth weight. According to Second Hand Smoke: Minimizing the Risk, women who smoke are at a higher risk of having a miscarriage than those who do not (4). In addition, their immune systems, which protect them from getting sick, are less developed and can't protect them as much from tobacco smoke. Fathers can also have negative effects on the fetus. If the father smokes within closed quarters of the mother, she is taking in the fumes which directly travel to the f...