Sunday, September 20, 2009

Second-hand and Third-hand Smoke!!

Inhalation of smoke from tobacco products used by others is termed as passive smoking and the smoke is known as “second hand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)”. When a person smokes the nearby individuals also gets affected with the smoke released by cigarette. Second hand smoke is highly dangerous for all especially for children. It may results in certain diseases, disabilities and even death. Most of its effect is long-term causing wide array of negative effects including cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, respiratory ailments etc.

• Cancer: - Lung cancer, breast cancer, Renal cell carcinoma, brain tumor.
• Circulatory system diseases: - Heart attack, reduced heart rate, etc
• Infections: - ear, nose, throat
• Respiratory problems: - Lung problems, asthma, bronchitis
• Cognitive impairment
• Pregnancy complications: - smoking may results in a number of health complications in pregnant women i.e. low birth rate, premature birth, infant syndrome.
• Increased risk of tuberculosis
• Allergies
• Crohn’s disease
• Learning difficulties, neurobehavioral effects, developmental delays
• Tooth decay

Third hand smoke: - It is the residual tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished and second-hand smoke has cleared from the air. This residue consists of numerous same toxic chemicals that are found in second-hand smoke. Thus the damaging effects of both are almost same.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Smoking Facts!!

• Today’s around 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute and 15 billion are sold each day.

• The weight of approximately 5 trillion cigarette filters is 2 billion pounds. These trillions of filters are filled with toxic chemicals from tobacco smoke.

• Cigarette filters consist of very thin fibers of a plastic known as “cellulose acetate”. That is the reason a cigarette filter may take 18 months-10 years to decompose.

• Nicotine content of a cigar is 100-200 milligrams however a cigarette contains approximately 8-9 milligrams of nicotine.

• The nicotine content of 4-5 cigarettes is enough to kill an average adult if consumed completely. However a smoker take in only 1-2 milligrams of nicotine per cigarette and rest gets burned off.

• A manufactured cigarette contains hundreds of addictives and Ambergris is one of them. It is also known as “whale vomit”.

• Cigarette smoke contains low levels of radioactive lead and polonium. It also consists of benzene which is the root cause of acute myeloid leukemia.

• Cigarette smoke contains toxic byproducts i.e. Hydrogen cyanide. It was used as a genocidal chemical agent during World War II

• Cigarette smoke consists of more than 50 cancer causing chemical compounds. Out of which 11 are known to be “Group 1 carcinogens”

• One in every 5 teens (nearly 13-15 years of age) smoke cigarettes

• Smoldering cigarette smoke contains high level of toxins than the exhaled smoke does.

• Most of the long-term smokers die mainly because of tobacco-related death.