Health effects of smoking
Health hazards of passive smoking Some of the immediate effects of passive smoking include eye irritation, headache, cough, sore throat, dizziness and nausea. Adults with asthma can experience a significant decline in lung function when exposed, while new cases of asthma may be induced in children whose parents smoke. Short-term exposure to tobacco smoke also has a measurable effect on the heart in non-smokers. Just 30 minutes exposure is enough to reduce coronary blood flow.
In the longer term, passive smokers suffer an increased risk of a range of smoking-related diseases. Non-smokers who are exposed to passive smoking in the home, have a 25 per cent increased risk of heart disease and lung cancer. Passive smoking is a cause of lung cancer and ischaemic heart disease in adult non-smokers, and a cause of respiratory disease, cot death, middle ear disease and asthmatic attacks in children.
Inhalation of passive smoke by healthy individuals and those with pre-existing respiratory disease commonly causes acute irritant effects in the upper and, to a lesser extent, the lower respiratory tracts. There are sufficient data to indicate that asthmatics may suffer significant acute effects following exposure to passive smoke. However, there is insufficient evidence to assess the effects of passive smoking upon susceptible individuals who have airways hyper-reactivity or atopy but who are not clinically asthmatic.
Passive smoking may increase the risk of occurrence of lung cancer. Despite limitations in the amount of data available, and despite research difficulties in making satisfactory estimations of individual exposure, a consistent pattern of moderately increased risk of lung cancer in passive smokers has emerged. In view of this pattern, of the known and substantial increase in risk of lung cancer in active smokers (and the lack of a threshold dose), and of the documented levels of bodily assimilation of passively-inhaled smoke, it is therefore prudent public health policy to infer an increased risk of lung cancer from passive smoking. Passive smoking is associated with an increased risk of cancers at sites other than lung is less substantial and less consistent than for lung cancer.
For children, the developing lungs of young children are also affected by exposure to secondhand smoke. Infants and young children whose parents smoke are among the most seriously affected by exposure to secondhand smoke, with an increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to have reduced lung function and symptoms of respiratory irritation like cough, excess phlegm, and wheeze. Passive smoking can lead to buildup of fluid in the middle, the most common cause of hospitalization children for an operation. Asthmatic children who are exposed to secondhand smoke have their condition made worse.
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