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 as likely to suffer from chronic dry cough as adults (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2006).
Children can be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in various places such as At Home when Children can breathe in secondhand tobacco smoke if parents or others smoke inside there home. In public places where children can be exposed to secondhand smoke in restaurants, bars, and outdoor