What is passive smoking?
Passive smoking refers to the inhaling of smoke from tobacco products that are being used by others. It is also known as second smoking. This normally happens when you are around the environment where someone is smoking tobacco and you are not. This goes in the air and you cannot avoid inhaling the contaminated air from while breathing. The passive smoking has effects that include diseases, disability and death according to scientific research. The smoker who smokes around people should therefore quit smoking.
The people who are vulnerable to these effects of passive smoking are by standers. The tobacco smoke exposure has immediate effect on the blood and the blood vessels that increases the risk of heart attack. The smoke that comes from tobacco is harmful to the health of fetuses, infants, and small children since it affects the normal development of their organs. It mainly affects their heart and lungs.
The Effects of passive smoking
Some of the long term effects of passive smoking include cancer, ling cancer, breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma, brain tumor, ear, nose and throat infection, circulatory system, lung problems, worsens asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, and increased tooth decay. The children can develop asthmatic conditions and other related breathing complications that may take longer to heal or manage. The kid may develop sinusitis, cystic fibrosis and respiratory diseases especially if this is done regularly at home leading to more exposure to the tobacco smoke the parents should quit smoking especially around the kids.
Low birth weight and premature birth during pregnancy can result from passive smoking. Pregnant women who are smoking are always advised to quit smoking during the pregnancy and breastfeeding period since it can affect the heath and development of the fetus. It can lead to cleft lip and palate of the child when it is born. Smoking reduces the production of milk after birth for a breastfeeding mother. It can also increase the sudden infant death syndrome.
Some of the other effects of passive smoking includes coughs, nausea, headaches, eye irritation, sore throat, dizziness and difficulty in breathing especially for people already suffering from asthma. The effects do not have top come from long exposures even a short exposure can cause the blood platelets to get thicker, damage the blood vessel linings, reduce the coronary flow and reduce heart rate which means the chances of developing heart attacks are high. The solution is to quit smoking.
Smoking by a father can damage the chromosomes in his sperms which make sit weak tom produce normal babies. If this smoke is inhaled by the mother then it affects the developing fetus by affecting the levels of female sex hormones. This in return affects the amount of blood that flows to the placenta to nourish the baby. If both partners are smoking then it might lead to miscarriage and lower the chances of getting normal babies. This means the couple may have problems with getting babies therefore they should quit smoking.
Preventing the effects
The best way to prevent the effects of passive smoking is to quit smoking. If you do not want to quit smoking then quit smoking around people especially children and pregnant women.