Second & third-hand smoke
Second-hand smoke: also called environmental tobacco smoke, is considered highly toxic. It includes smoke from a cigarette (side stream smoke), smoke exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke), as well as smoke from pipes, cigars or marijuana.
Two-thirds of the smoke produced by tobacco spreads into the ambient air. Anyone within close range of an active smoker cannot help but breathe in this tobacco smoke, and therefore becomes a passive smoker.
Third-hand smoke: is residual nicotine and other chemicals left on indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke. Third-hand smoke clings to clothes, furniture, drapes, walls, bedding, carpets, dust, vehicles and other surfaces long after smoking has stopped. The residue from third-hand smoke builds up on surfaces over time. Third-hand smoke can't be eliminated by airing out rooms, opening windows, using fans or air conditioners, or confining smoking to only certain areas of a home.
Second-hand smoke exposure
Once inhaled, smoke causes the release of the many different chemicals in one’s body, disrupting the mechanism in the lungs that would normally protect it from injury brought about by tobacco smoke. As a result, second-hand smokers experience nasal congestion, have inflamed airways and tend to cough a lot. Second-hand smoke is also known to damage the walls of the air sacs (alveoli), which eventually impairs the ability of the lungs to supply oxygen to the blood.
Health risks
Second-hand smoke exposure in babies and children
Second-hand smoke exposure in pets
Second-hand smoke in the environment
Did you know?
- There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke. It is hazardous for everyone, especially for children.
- Second-hand smoke has been confirmed as a cancer-causing substance.
- Second-hand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. More than 70 of these are known to cause, initiate or promote cancer and are called “carcinogens”.
- The toxic and cancer-causing chemicals found in second-hand smoke include arsenic, carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, cyanide, and benzene, just to name a few.
- Nicotine, carcinogens and toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke are inhaled when people breathe second-hand smoke and reach every organ in the body.
- The majority of the smoke from a lit cigarette is not inhaled by the smoker, but enters the air around the smoker. As a result, the majority of nicotine and tar enters the air from the burning cigarette as second-hand smoke.
- The concentration of many cancer-causing and toxic chemicals can be higher in second-hand smoke than in the smoke inhaled by smokers.
- Smoking in an enclosed space such as a car greatly increases the concentration of harmful chemicals produced by second-hand smoke.
- All forms of smoke are harmful. Numerous toxic chemicals are formed during combustion so that many of the chemicals created when tobacco burns are also created when other plants burn.
