Tobacco smoking is the most common bad habit in the world. About how negative the nicotine and tar affect human health, they write on cigarette packages, doctors say it, parents convince their children not even to start smoking. And what about those people who are not by their own will poisoned with cigarette smoke? Passive smoking, according to research scientists, is no less dangerous thing than active.
Passive smoking and its effect on health
The term "passive smoking" means the inadvertent and unwanted inhalation of air poisoned by substances released during smoking. That is, the smoker, deliberately inhaling the smoke of a cigarette, without hesitation, etches the non-smokers standing next to them!
Harmful substances are as follows:
- Carbon monoxide. Being in a smoke-free room, a non-smoker often experiences severe headache, nausea. This is the result of the action of carbon monoxide on the body. By inhaling this harmful substance, a person experiences real oxygen starvation.
- Nitric oxide. Inhalation is very toxic, it affects the respiratory tract.
- Aldehydes are poisonous substances. When ingested, the person is strongly irritated, in addition, aldehydes exert a depressing effect on the nervous system. Particularly dangerous formaldehyde, as its concentration in the air at times exceeds the amount that got into the body of the smoker.
- Hydrogen cyanide. Highly toxic substance, has a destructive effect on the body as a whole.
- Acrolein. The product of incomplete combustion of tobacco, causes a strong irritation of the mucous membranes of the nose and bronchi.
- Nitrosamine. The strongest carcinogen contained in tobacco smoke. Has a destructive effect on the brain.
In addition to the above, there are about 4,000 harmful substances in tobacco smoke in tobacco smoke, of which more than fifty are carcinogens - substances that can cause the development of malignant neoplasms.
On the video on the dangers of second-hand smoke:
What's wrong with
Tobacco smoke itself is very unpleasant - it instantly absorbs into clothes, hair, has a specific smell. The effect of tobacco smoke on the body can be short-term and long-lasting. Inhalation of the combustion products of tobacco for a short period of time will not cause significant harm to the body and health, all harmful components will quickly neutralize the immune system. But long-term stay in a room where people smoke constantly, is doing immense harm to the body of a non-smoker.
Suffer almost all body systems:
- Respiratory system. Tobacco smoke irritates the olfactory receptors, withers the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, leading to severe throat and coughing. Over time, an unsuspecting non-smoker can develop an allergic rhinitis that gradually develops into a vasomotor rhinitis. This is not an inoffensive condition, accompanied by constant swelling and discharge from the nose, can lead to oxygen starvation of brain cells, stopping breathing in sleep and other unpleasant consequences. No less dangerous is a disease like asthma. Asthma in passive smokers occurs five times more often than in people in an atmosphere where there is no tobacco smoke. Do not overlook and such deadly diseases as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer.
- Cardiovascular system. Toxins contained in the smoke exhaled by the person smoking smoke negatively affect the blood vessels: the elasticity of the vessels decreases, the risk of atherosclerosis and angina increases, which in turn leads to coronary heart disease. Insufficient supply of brain tissues with oxygen due to the inhalation of toxic products of cigarette smoke leads to an increased risk of stroke, an extremely serious condition in which brain cells die.
- Nervous system. The prolonged inhalation of cigarette-soaked air irritates a non-smoker, leads to chronic stress, which does not have a positive effect on the state of the nervous system. Particularly harmful to the nervous system is the huge amount of nicotine found in tobacco smoke. Nicotine first activates, and then depresses the nervous system, which can lead to overexcitement and insomnia, nausea, dizziness and other unpleasant manifestations.
- Reproductive system. Known are such facts - the wives of heavy smokers, especially those who smoke houses, eventually lose the ability to conceive, they shorten the menstrual cycle, there is an early exhaustion of the ovaries.
There is an opinion that passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking - and this problem was considered by researchers of the international agency for the study of cancer. And it is true. At first glance, both active and passive smokers breathe the same smoke. But, there are irrefutable facts, echoing the fact that a person without nicotine dependence is several times more at risk of contracting oncological diseases.
According to the data in the lateral streams of smoke, there are about 400 thousand chemicals, and 69 of them fall on carcinogens, which are present in smoke-free air at a higher concentration than with direct smoking. For example: benzopyrene in the side stream is 3-4 times larger, volatile nitrosamines 50-100 times. All this is a direct answer to the question of why passive smoking is more harmful than the active one.
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For children
Adult people can at least somehow get rid of the unwanted inhalation of smoking products. Little children can not do this. The damage from the cigarette smoke that the children of smokers get is simply huge. The amount of toxins that a small child receives with tobacco smoke is capable of completely killing his immunity. It should be borne in mind that a child is constantly exposed to tobacco, because he is not able to leave or ventilate the room.
Studies have shown that the risk of a child's colds, respiratory illnesses, allergies increases by 95% if the smoking mother is breastfeeding, and 70% if the mother holds the infant while smoking while smoking.
Absolutely all diseases peculiar to adults arise in small passive smokers - asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, rhinitis and otitis, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory and allergic diseases, malignant neoplasms.
Children whose parents smoke in their presence are at high risk of neurological problems. Already at an early age, such children differ from their peers by slower rates of physical development, which lead to a violation of the psycho-emotional sphere, after all, both these spheres at an early age are closely interrelated.
For pregnant
Very dangerous passive smoking for life and health of an unborn little man. Pregnant women, exposing themselves and their unborn child to poisoning with cigarette smoke, should understand that they are in close biological connection with the child, and those toxins that they inhale will necessarily fall into the blood of the child.
Than it threatens the fetus:
- The biggest danger is the death of the baby in the womb;
- slows the growth and development of the child. Passive smokers, as well as those who smoke mothers, often have small children;
- increases the risk of a child with congenital defects: hare lip, wolf's maw, clubfoot, strabismus;
- violation of placental blood flow leads to hypoxia of the fetus, which entails the birth of a child with possible deviations in intellectual development.
In addition, women who are forced to inhale tobacco smoke for a long time, have more serious problems with pregnancy, frequent toxicosis, high risk of premature birth, which will require further care and special attention to the newborn.
On the video about the dangers of second-hand smoke for pregnant women:
Consequences of
Every year around 600 000 people die from the terrible effects of passive smoking. Such statistics were provided by the World Health Organization. About 400,000 people die of heart disease from this amount, 165,000 deaths due to respiratory diseases, and asthma firmly ranks third in mortality from the effects of second-hand smoke. And concludes this terrible statistics death from lung cancer - about 22 000 people a year.
There are a lot of children among passive smoking victims - more than 150 000 people. These are the children whose parents did not think about the fact that tobacco smoke inflicts death to their baby and smoked right under him. Most often, children die from respiratory diseases caused by the inhalation of toxic cigarette smoke, in addition to this, mortality from SIDS, pneumonia and asthma is high.
How to protect yourself?
If you can not get rid of your home and working space from smokers, at least mitigate the consequences of inhaling cigarette smoke by following simple rules:
- Airing and humidifying the room.
- Installation in the smoking areas of additional ventilation devices.
- Allocation of special places for smoking and a ban on smoking in public places.
- Choose non-smoking establishments.
- Take a shower and change clothes after being in a smoke-filled area.