Second hand smoke

Second Hand Smoke and Cancer

The U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has classified second hand smoke as a Group A carcinogen.
Cancers linked to passive smoking include:

• Lung cancer – 3000 non-smokers die every year from lung cancer caused by ETS
• Nasal sinus cavity cancer
• Cervical Cancer
• Breast cancer
• Bladder cancer

Some chemical compounds found in smoke only become carcinogenic after they’ve come into contact with certain enzymes found in many of the tissues of the human body.
The Risks of Second Hand Smoke to a Child

• Low birth weight for gestational age
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)- children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy have an increased risk of SIDS.
• The EPA estimates that passive smoking is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 of these infections in children under 18 months annually
• Asthma – According to the EPA, between 200,000 and 1,000,000 kids with asthma have their condition worsened by second hand smoke every year. Also, passive smoking may also be responsible for thousands of new cases of asthma every year
• Chronic respiratory symptoms such as cough and wheezing may be attributed to second hand smoke.
• Children who breathe in second hand smoke are more likely to suffer from dental cavities, eye and nose irritation, and irritability
• Middle ear infections – exposure to ETS causes build-up of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits yearly

How Second Hand Smoke Can Affect the Heart

Heart disease mortality – an estimated 35,000 to 62,000 deaths are caused from heart disease in people who are not current smokers, but who are exposed to ETS

• Acute and chronic coronary heart disease
• Passive smoking has been linked to the narrowing of the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain
• Exposure to second hand smoke hastens hardening of the arteries, a condition known as arthrosclerosis
• Continual exposure to ETS has been shown to nearly double the chance of heart attack

Second Hand Smoke – Worse Than We Thought
Second hand smoke is serious business, and should be a concern for anyone who breathes it in. Non-smokers inhaling second hand smoke share some of the health risks smokers face. But smokers do face the worst of it – the risks of smoking are compounded by breathing the smoke in for a second time.

Don’t underestimate the dangers of ETS. While second hand smoke may not kill as many people as smoking does, it is toxic and claims thousands of lives every year around the world.

To help quit smoking, visit www.quitsmokingcigaretteguide.com for more information.

Tip #1 You need a good reason to quit.  Simply deciding to quit because the sky is blue is not a sufficient reason.  The need to quit smoking is obvious, but the desire to quit needs to come from inside in order for the process to be successful.

Tip #2  Look for small rewards that you can give yourself as you make progress.  You are not likely to just quit cold turkey with no complications.  Set up small rewards that will help you to want to make progress towards ultimately quitting.  This can be a great motivation to keep you on target.

Tip #3  Plan out your quitting strategy.  Decide how you want to try to quit and stick to it.  Set a specific amount of time for your plan.  If after a time, say six weeks you have not quit, work on a new plan.  This will allow ample time to try each method, while still giving yourself flexibility to try something else.

Tip #4  Work to overcome your struggles.  If you are smoking due to stressful things in your life, you need to deal with the stress before you can successfully quit.  Regardless of the reason why you are smoking, it needs to be dealt with in able to quit for good.

Tip #5  Set up a punishment for yourself.  For example, if you generally stop at Starbucks each day for a coffee you might consider skipping that on days when you have fallen short of your goals for smoking.  Whatever punishment you select, make sure it is something that you care about.

Tip #6  Seek out help from your friends and family.  You need support as you are trying to quit, and this will help you to ensure that you are not alone in the entire process.

Tip #7  Look for someone to quit with you.  If you are entirely on your own, you are going to be much more likely to slip back into smoking.  If someone is working with you and holding you accountable, you are more likely to struggle to succeed.  Working to quit smoking is not easy, but hard tasks are much easier to accomplish with a partner.

Tip #8  Ensure you are getting plenty of sleep.  The job of quitting smoking is quite difficult.  If you are not getting the rest you need, you are much more likely to be cranky, upset and angry with the world.  This is can be counterproductive to your goal of quitting smoking for good.

Tip #9  Aim to quit for good.  This might seem a bit strange, but if you are just planning to quit for a weekend you are not going to put much effort into the process.  If you are planning to quit for good, a lot more time and effort is going to go into the process as well as your plan to quit.

Tip #10  Look for ways to take your mind off cigarettes.  If you are always thinking about cigarettes, you may find that you are much more tempted to smoke.  Reading a book, exercising, talking on the phone, surfing the internet and even cooking are all great ways to occupy your mind and keep from thinking about when your last cigarette was.