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Facts about Secondhand Smoke

Some of the key facts about secondhand tobacco smoke and its dangers are summarized below.

General | Children | Workplace |


General

  • Secondhand smoke is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers. Each year secondhand smoke kills an estimated 3,000 adult nonsmokers from lung cancer.
     
  • Secondhand smoke causes other respiratory problems in nonsmokers: coughing, phlegm, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function.
     
  • For many people, secondhand smoke causes reddening, itching, and watering of the eyes. About eight out of 10 nonsmokers report they are annoyed by others’ cigarette smoke.
     
  • More than 4,000 chemical compounds have been identified in tobacco smoke including formaldehyde, cyanide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and nicotine. Of these, at least 43, such as benzene and N-nitrosamines, are known to cause cancer in humans or animals.
     
  • Detectable amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and other evidence of secondhand smoke can be found in the body fluids of nonsmokers exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).
     
  • Three out of four nonsmokers have lived with smokers, and nearly half (45%) are worried that secondhand smoke might cause them serious health problems.
     
  • More than 90% of Americans favor restricting or banning smoking in public places.
     
  • Laws limiting smoking in public places vary by state and range from designated smoking areas to separately ventilated smoking areas to a complete ban of smoking in a particular site. As of December 1995,
  • 40 states and Washington, D.C., restricted smoking at government worksites
  • 20 states and Washington, D.C., restricted smoking at private worksites
  • 30 states and Washington, D.C., restricted smoking in restaurants
  • 27 states and Washington, D.C., restricted smoking in day care centers
  • Laws restricting smoking in public places have been implemented with few problems and at little cost to state and local government. Private businesses that ban smoking incur few costs.
     
  • Smoking policies may have multiple benefits. Besides reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, such policies may alter smoking behavior and public attitudes about tobacco use. Over time, these changes may contribute to a significant reduction in U.S. smoking rates.

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Children

  • Each year, exposure to secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in U.S. infants and children younger than 18 months of age. These infections result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations yearly.
     
  • Chronic cough, wheezing, and phlegm are more frequent in children whose parents smoke.
     
  • Children exposed to secondhand smoke at home are more likely to have middle-ear disease and reduced lung function.
     
  • Secondhand smoke increases the number of asthma attacks and the severity of asthma in about 20% of this country’s 2 million to 5 million asthmatic children.
     
  • Each year, between 8,000 and 26,000 new cases of childhood asthma may be attributed to mothers who smoke 10 or more cigarettes per day.
     
  • It has been estimated that about 60% of deaths from sudden infant death syndrome may be attributed to exposure to parental tobacco smoke before or after birth: the greater the exposure the higher the risk.

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Workplace

  • The simple separation of smokers from nonsmokers within the same airspace may reduce, but cannot eliminate, the exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.
     
  • There is no safe level of exposure to a cancer-causing substance.
     
  • Survey responses indicate that at least 4.5 million American workers experience great discomfort from exposure to secondhand smoke.
     
  • The best method for controlling worker exposure to secondhand smoke is to eliminate tobacco use from the workplace. Workplaces should also support smokers who would like to quit by providing cessation assistance.
     
  • About 85% of businesses had adopted some form of smoking policies in 1991, up from 36% in 1986.

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Taking Action Against Secondhand Smoke

 


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This page last reviewed September 05, 2003

United States Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office on Smoking and Health