“Smoking is injurious to health” is the statutory warning written on every cigarette packet. It’s not just a warning but it is a fact too. Smoking is never good for anyone. Forget about the regular smokers, it is equally bad for passive smokers too meaning you are in regular contact with people who smoke. Like close family members and friends of chain smokers are also at danger. Smoke can come from a cigarette, cigar or even a pipe. Tobacco smoke is in no way good for health. It is said that this smoke has more than 4000 chemical compounds and a second-hand smoke has more than 7000 chemical compounds out of which more than 70 can cause cancer and other hearth related ailments. When a person smokes there is a smoke that comes out due the burning of tobacco and also there is another type of smoke that comes out of the smoker’s mouth that makes it more dangerous for a non smoker that is why it is said that the chemical compounds are more in a second hand smoke.
Second hand smoke has many life threatening effects on all of us:
- It causes serious diseases in children and in adults who do not smoke.
- There are many deaths of children every year around the world, as a result of second hand smoke.
- Second hand smoke reaches heart directly, giving rise to the chances of heart attacks or blockages.
- There are few studies showing the cause of breast cancer in rodents due to second hand smoke. This means there could be a similar pattern in humans too.
- Another danger is that it causes respiratory infections like bronchitis, pneumonia and many more life threatening diseases.
- Second hand smoke affects lungs of non smoker’s worst than a regular smoker.
- Another risk is of chronic cough or tuberculosis.
- Ear infection is another danger of second hand smoke, which can’t be avoided.
- It even causes SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
- It causes more irritation to asthma patients as it increases the severity and frequency of asthma attacks.
Lifestyle of people in today’s fast paced and digitally affluent world is definitely not healthy. We are all indulging in things that we should not be in, sometimes purposely and sometimes because of people around us. Cigarette smoking is one such habit that has actually become a trend. People think it is the way of life and find it trendy. But they don’t realize that they are pushing themselves to serious diseases of lung, heart and even cancer. Not just people who smoke being affected but also people who don’t are being affected largely by this. We are all becoming passive smokers because of people around us who smoke.
