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What Is Secondhand Smoke?
Secondhand smoke is also known as Environmental Tobacco
Smoke. Secondhand smoke includes both exhaled mainstream smoke from smokers and sidestream
smoke from the end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. Secondhand smoke contains more than
4,000 substances, including over 40 that are linked to cancer. Many of the compounds in
tobacco smoke are released at higher rates in sidestream smoke than in mainstream smoke.
How Does Secondhand Smoke Relate To
Asthma?
Secondhand smoke may trigger asthma episodes and make
asthma symptoms more severe in children who already have asthma. Moreover, secondhand
smoke is a risk factor for new cases of asthma in children who have not previously
exhibited asthma symptoms. |
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means by which secondhand smoke triggers an asthma episode is believed to be through its
irritancy effects. That is, smoke irritates the chronically inflamed bronchial passages of
asthmatics. This is a different pathway from most of the other environmental triggers of
asthma, like dust mites and pet dander, which trigger asthma episodes through allergenic
effects. Exposure to secondhand smoke is also
known to cause a variety of other negative health consequences, including lung cancer, ear
infections in children, and respiratory illnesses.
Many of the health effects of secondhand smoke (including
asthma) are most clearly manifested in children. This is because children are particularly
vulnerable to secondhand smoke. This is likely due to several factors, including the fact
that children are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults,
and have little control over their indoor environments. Children receiving high doses of
secondhand smoke, such as those with smoking mothers, run the greatest relative risk of
experiencing damaging health effects.
Actions You
Can Take
- Choose not to smoke in your home or car and do not
permit others to do so either.
- Choose not to smoke in the presence of asthmatics.
- Choose not to smoke in the presence of children, who
are particularly susceptible to the effects of secondhand smoke.
- Do not allow babysitters or others who work in your
home to smoke in the house or near your children.
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