...DANGERS OF SECONDHAND SMOKE ____________________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Course Communication Arts II ____________________ By Julienne TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….. II. NATURE OF SECONDHAND SMOKE…………………………………………….. III. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SECONDHAND SMOKE…………………….... A. Cotinine…………………………………………………………………………... B. Carcinogens………………………………………………………………………. 1. Carbon Monoxide……………………………………………………………… 2. Cyanide……………………………………………………………………….... IV. TYPES OF SECONDHAND SMOKE……………………………………………….. A. Mainstream Smoke………………………………………………………………… B. Sidestream Smoke…………………………………………………………………. C. Thirdhand Smoke………………………………………………………………….. V. EFFECTS OF SECONDHAND SMOKE……………………………………………. A. Cancers…………………………………………………………………………… 1. LungCancer………………………………………………………………….. 2. Breast Cancer ……………………………………………………………….. B. Effects in Cardiovascular System………………………………………………… 1. Coronary Heart Disease……………………………………………………… 2. Stroke…………………………………………………………………………. 3. Other Heart Disease………………………………………………………….. C. Effects in Respiratory System…………………………………………………….. 1. Asthma………………………………………………………………………... 2. Irritation of Respiratory Tract………………………………………………… D. Effects in Neurological System……………………………………………………. 1. Dementia………………………………………………………………………. E. Effects During Pregnancy…………………………………………………………. F. Effects to Children…………………………………………………………………...
Words: 3240 - Pages: 13
...There is no real risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. The effect of secondhand smoke on individuals is hard to measure, however several studies have recognized an increase in respiratory conditions and lung cancer. According to Christian Heiss article in the Journal of American College of Cardiology, secondhand smoke increases a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease which is also a major public health concern. (Heiss) Even a very brief exposure to secondhand smoke can begin to have effects on the cardiovascular system and interfere with the normal functioning of the heart. When secondhand smoke is breathed in the platelets in the blood get sticky and may form clots which could lead to a heart attack. (U.S.) The risks...
Words: 388 - Pages: 2
... | |Secondhand Smoke and the Effect on Non Smokers | |University of Phoenix | | | |Clint Atwater | | August 16, 2009 | | | SECONDHAND SMOKE AND ITS EFFECTS ON NON-SMOKERS Smoking is still a legal right for Americans if they so choose. Along with this right comes the production of secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is very toxic, causes numerous deaths in non-smokers each year and increases the risk of certain childhood respiratory problems. Secondhand smoke can be hard to avoid because according to the American Lung Association 1 out of 5 people smoke. (2006, Center for Disease Control Health Survey) Also according to research, there is no safe exposure to secondhand smoke. As basic as...
Words: 1176 - Pages: 5
...Secondhand Smoke: The Invisible Killer An I-Search Paper March 22, 2011 What I Already Know “You don't have to be a smoker for smoking to harm you.” This was my first introduction to secondhand smoking when my teacher in high school told me once about the topic. As I was listening, I was astonished when I heard the health problems I will get from breathing in other people's smoke. It is said that non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like smokers do. It’s surprisingly unbelievable, that the health risks I would get from secondhand smoke are the same with the actual smokers. Some say it’s even harmful for the secondhand smokers than the actual ones. Smokers are everywhere. Indeed, I have friends who smoke. Everytime I'm with them, I want to tell them to stop smoking since I know it's not only their health that are being put at risk. They told me it's hard to stop smoking once you've started doing it. I'm bit curious about their answers. Is it that hard? I wonder if they care about the people around them who's affected by their wrongdoings. And as a non smoker, I’ve been exposed to other people’s cigarette smoke at many times. I feel a little of anger to smokers because I can still remember the words of my teacher. Knowing that my health is at risk just because of other people wrongdoings is alarming. As I want myself to stop them to smoke, I...
Words: 2718 - Pages: 11
...Lets help support clean air with smoke free areas so, that our kids can breath healthy clean air– Government policies that support smoke-free workplaces and public areas are helping our childrens future and promoting a clean air future. Lets help support clean air with smoke free areas so, that our kids can breath healthy clean air– Government policies that support smoke-free workplaces and public areas are helping our childrens future and promoting a clean air future. Retrieved From http://betobaccofree.hhs.gov/health-effects/pregnancy/index.html http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/ http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/index.htm Retrieved From http://betobaccofree.hhs.gov/health-effects/pregnancy/index.html http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/ http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/index.htm Resources Available * www.azdhs.gov/tobaccofreeaz (website that offers different resources in the community and throughout arizona to help quit smoking) * WWW.BeTobaccoFree.Gov (Community and National web base resources to help quit smoking) * Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW ( toll-free number operated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that will connect you directly to your state’s tobacco quitline ) 1-800-QUIT-NOW is a toll-free number operated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that will connect you directly to your state’s tobacco quitline *...
Words: 967 - Pages: 4
...Al Gore was quoted; “Secondhand smoke isn’t just unpleasant, it’s a risk to public health” (Smoak 130). The issue is that smoke directly affects everyone in the vicinity of a public place, restaurant or bar. Based on the evidence that a ban on smoking prevents secondhand smoke, it is important that an amendment banning smoking in public buildings is added immediately. The first and most pressing issue with smoking in public buildings is the major health risks involved with secondhand smoke. It is reported that over 50,000 Americans are killed annually by passive smoking (Garrison 44). Of that 50,000; 35,000 died from heart disease, 3,000 died from lung cancer, and the other 12,000 deaths are caused from other cancers. With this major death toll, it ranks second hand smoke as the third leading cause for premature deaths, it trails alcohol related deaths and smoking as the two leading causes (Smoak 129). Granted that not all secondhand smoke is consumed in public buildings, some people are exposed in their homes, over 2,000 people died in one year because of secondhand smoke and they did not smoke or live with someone that did (Garrison 44). Besides adults being affected by passive smoking, children are strongly affected and can become seriously ill. It was estimated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) that between 150,000 and 300,000 children under the age of eighteen months got pneumonia or bronchitis because of secondhand smoke (USEPA 33)....
Words: 1047 - Pages: 5
...Secondhand Smoke Poses Hazard to Infants Listed are a few reasons why this topic is important * Infants that are around people that smoke are at increased risk for infections such as ear infections. * Being around smoke can interfere with the normal functioning of heart, blood and vascular system. * Leads to poor lung development (meaning that their lungs never grow to their full potential). * Studies show sudden infant death syndrome occurs in infants that are around smoke. * * Insert your second reason here. * Insert your third reason here. Secondhand Smoke Poses Hazard to Infants Listed are a few reasons why this topic is important * Infants that are around people that smoke are at increased risk for infections such as ear infections. * Being around smoke can interfere with the normal functioning of heart, blood and vascular system. * Leads to poor lung development (meaning that their lungs never grow to their full potential). * Studies show sudden infant death syndrome occurs in infants that are around smoke. * * Insert your second reason here. * Insert your third reason here. Secondhand smoke is the smoke a smoker breathes out and that comes from the tip of a burning cigarette, pipe and cigar. It contains about 4,000 chemicals. Many which are dangerous and can cause cancer. Anytime children breathe in secondhand smoke they are exposed to these chemicals. Do you want your child to get an infection...
Words: 2303 - Pages: 10
...Smoke: The Risk and the Controversy In "The Moral Instinct," Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, describes a new sixth sense. "The moral sense," he calls it. It's the way we, as human beings, determine what issues are moral or amoral. Take smoking, for instance. Years ago, it was widely considered to be a health issue. Many non-smokers didn't smoke because they worried about how cigarettes could affect their lungs and heart. When scientists determined that second-hand smoke was unhealthy too, smoking became a moral issue. Smoking is one of the most widespread bad habits all over the world. In its turn, tobacco industry is one of the most profitable businesses nowadays. Millions of people start smoking, and then decide they want to get rid of this habit, thus the health industry products for smokers who try to quit their habit are also quite attractive to invest in. Nowadays everyone knows smoking is hazardous for the health of the smoker, and of people who inhale cigarette smoke; it leads to lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, influences on prenatal development, and causes many other unpleasant and dangerous effects. Hot dogs, baseball and cigarettes? How did smoking become an American tradition? The "History of Tobacco" article state, American Indians began using tobacco as early as 1 B.C for medicinal and religious purposes. In the early nineteenth century, tobacco became increasingly popular among the gold miners and cowboys (History of Tobacco)...
Words: 2132 - Pages: 9
...air, clean, and crisp. Yet, my joy hastily ends when the sudden smell of cigarette smoke engulfs me and my children. Sound familiar? Something must be done about this intrusion upon non-smoker's rights. Is our health so meaningless as to be put at the mercy of carcinogens and toxins? What about innocent children, who protects their body from such horrible poisons? I think a human beings health and wellbeing is not being considered, measured, or reflected when it comes to non-smokers rights. While, most businesses provide non-smoking rights to their customers within their buildings, others even provide non-smoking rights to include the property around their business. Secondhand smoke contains hazardous chemicals requiring serious measures to be taken to protect the non-smoker from critical health problems. Surprisingly enough, the average individual has no idea how harmful these toxins, carcinogens, and chemicals really are for their body and the environment around them. Individuals who smoke must educate themselves about the risks of secondhand smoke so they can take into account for others safety because it has been linked to respiratory health effects in children, it has been linked to certain infections in children, and it increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Illnesses, diseases, and infections are all side effects toward children when exposed to secondhand smoke. Small children have been diagnosed with aliments such as pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma...
Words: 2898 - Pages: 12
...----------------------- Protect your Family • Make your home and car smoke free. • Family, friends or visitors should never smoke inside your home or car. • Keep yourself and your children away from places where smoking is allowed. • If you smoke, smoke only outside. • Ask your doctor for ways to help you stop smoking (EPA, 2011) • • Facts about Environmental Tobacco Smoke Infants and toddlers have tiny bodies, tiny lungs, and breathe rapidly. All of these things increase how smoke can affect them. "The EPA estimates that passive smoking is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children less than 18 months of age annually, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year. Sinus problems caused by ETS can lead to fluid in the middle ear, which can then lead to ear infections, doctor’s visits, operations and childhood hearing loss. Exposure to environmental smoke increases kids’ risk later in life of lung cancer, heart disease, and cataracts of the eyes. Kids with asthma need clean air to breathe. More than 40% of children who visit the emergency room for severe asthma attacks live with smokers. They can stay healthier if the air around them doesn’t increase their risk for asthma attacks. Secondhand smoke can trigger asthma attacks. Researchers in one study estimate that ETS exposure increases the risk of crisis by 90% among children with sickle cell disease. (UMHS...
Words: 891 - Pages: 4
...Background Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is "secondhand smoke". Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the exhaled smoke from smokers nearby and the smoke that drifts from the smoldering end of a cigarette between puffs. Compared to the smoke that a smoker inhales, ETS is aged and highly diluted. More than 3,800 different compounds, including nicotine, carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde, and acrolein, are produced from a burning cigarettes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2006). There are two types of smoke that come from pipes, cigars and cigarettes. Sidestream smoke which comes directly from the burning tobacco product and mainstream smoke which is the smoke that the smoker exhales. Both types of secondhand smoke contain harmful chemicals and a lot of them. More than 250 of which are toxic. And more than 50 of the chemicals in cigarette smoke are known or suspected to cause cancer (mayoclinic.com). The dangerous particles in secondhand smoke can linger in the air for hours. Breathing them even for a short time — as little as 20 or 30 minutes — can harm you in a variety of ways. And breathing in secondhand smoke over years can be all the more dangerous (mayoclinic.com). Children are more vulnerable to ETS than adults, since there respiratory and immune systems are not fully developed and children spend more time at home where the majority of their ETS exposure exposed. Individuals 18 or younger, living with one or more smokers, were more than twice...
Words: 1119 - Pages: 5
...gone to a restaurant or to the bowling alley and come home smelling like cigarette smoke? And while you were there, some people are sitting there smoking by you and you can’t stand the smell of it. So you go out side and to get some fresh air and what do you know there’s some more people lighting it up and smoking but they are polite enough to go outside. Doesn’t this annoy you, that you can barely go anywhere without people smoking in your presence. This leads us to the question, Should smoking in public areas be allowed? Smoking in public areas is something that could definitely be dealt without. The things I will cover with you are the effects of smoking, the effects of second hand smoke, and some policies that are against public smoking. First I’ll start with the effects of smoking. To make cigarettes, tobacco leaves are dried and shredded, and then they are rolled into tubes. The smoke from tobacco in these cigarettes contains more than 4,000 gases and chemicals many of them are poisonous. Some of theses substances include ammonia, which is used in cleaning fluids, carbon monoxide, the deadly gas in car exhaust fumes, and tar. When cigarette smoke is inhaled, these substances are injected into the body. A smoker breathes smoke directly through the mouth in the bronchial tubes, which lead to the lungs. Tiny particles stick to the walls of the tubes, causing irritation. Then the smoke passes into the lungs and it leaves behind a brown tar. This tar contains chemicals...
Words: 1520 - Pages: 7
...gone to a restaurant or to the bowling alley and come home smelling like cigarette smoke? And while you were there, some people are sitting there smoking by you and you can’t stand the smell of it. So you go out side and to get some fresh air and what do you know there’s some more people lighting it up and smoking but they are polite enough to go outside. Doesn’t this annoy you, that you can barely go anywhere without people smoking in your presence. This leads us to the question, Should smoking in public areas be allowed? Smoking in public areas is something that could definitely be dealt without. The things I will cover with you are the effects of smoking, the effects of second hand smoke, and some policies that are against public smoking. First I’ll start with the effects of smoking. To make cigarettes, tobacco leaves are dried and shredded, and then they are rolled into tubes. The smoke from tobacco in these cigarettes contains more than 4,000 gases and chemicals many of them are poisonous. Some of theses substances include ammonia, which is used in cleaning fluids, carbon monoxide, the deadly gas in car exhaust fumes, and tar. When cigarette smoke is inhaled, these substances are injected into the body. A smoker breathes smoke directly through the mouth in the bronchial tubes, which lead to the lungs. Tiny particles stick to the walls of the tubes, causing irritation. Then the smoke passes into the lungs and it leaves behind a brown tar. This tar contains chemicals...
Words: 1520 - Pages: 7
...disease; secondly health affects exposure of secondhand smoke, thirdly it affects the health of the youth smoking tobacco, and fourthly the cost of treatment associated with cigarette smoking (healthcare). Cigarette smoking increases the risk of dying from cancer of the lungs, esophagus, larynx and oral cavity (as we studied in biology). The harmful effect of cigarettes is the chemical makeup of cigarette. According to Quitsmokingsupport.com Cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals , some of those chemicals are the heavy metals, humectants, casting agents ,pesticide, insecticides and nicotine which is an addictive substance added into a cigarette; that is why it is very hard for smokers to stop smoking right away . A friend’s mother who smoked up to 3 packs of cigarette per day for more than 25 years. She looked healthy and often cited that cigarette kills those who were already predisposed to suffer from those diseases. Years later she died, suffered from ventricular arrhythmia which means heart did not beat properly as a result it pumped little or no blood to the body organs; usually caused by nicotine in cigarette. According to Medical News Today (MNT), cigarette smoking harms the body by raising cholesterol level and blood pressure, as well as increasing the risk of cancer and cataracts and destroys certain vitamins and creates the need for other specific nutrients. In addition research also shows that smokers have an increased risk of heart disease (including stroke, chest...
Words: 1360 - Pages: 6
...Tobacco Smoke Identification How many times have you seen that people smoke around you? How many times have you seen that people go to buy tobaccos? How many times have you been involved in a mass of tobacco smoke? When you are involving in these situations, how do you feel about it? Currently a huge number of people in our world are addicted to tobaccos. Most of us know that smoking tobacco is harmful for our health. According to tobaccofreeweld.com, there are many cons for smoking such as increasing high risk of heart attack, anxiety and other chronic disease to personal health. However, even though most people know that smoking tobacco is harmful fewer people acknowledge that the tobacco smoke can also hurt our health. Most people are told that the toxic chemicals are frequently found in cigarette while some of them may not know that these toxic chemicals are contained in cigarette smoke as well. “… Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of chemicals. Some smoke components, such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and nitrogen oxides, are gases. Others, such as formaldehyde, acrolein, benzene, and certain N-nitrosamines, are volatile chemicals contained in the liquid- vapor portion of the smoke aerosol…” According to Cigarette Smoke Components and Disease by Jeffrey E. Harris, we can see that there are several toxic chemical elements contained in tobacco smoke such as Carbon Monxide, Hydrogen Cyanide and so on. Scientists have discovered that when one person...
Words: 1188 - Pages: 5