 The Latest on Secondhand Smoke
By: The Smoking Cessation Clinic at Columbia University
Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created an informative web site (http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/index.html) devoted to the dangers of secondhand smoke that includes a thorough review of the scientific literature on secondhand smoke, a special section on the effects of secondhand smoke on children, a rundown of recent legislation targeted against the noxious effects of secondhand smoke, and tips for protecting yourself and your loved ones from secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke – a combination of more than 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals and many of which are strong irritants – has been classified by the EPA as a known cause of lung cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen). In 2000, the National Institutes of Health formally listed secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen in its 9th Report on Carcinogens. Approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in non-smokers each year are attributable to secondhand smoke. Consistent exposure to secondhand smoke also significantly increases the risk of death from heart disease for non-smokers.
Perhaps the gravest danger posed by secondhand smoke is its effect on children. Children and their still-developing lungs are particularly vulnerable to secondhand smoke due to a number of factors, including higher respiratory rates and lack of control over their environment. Children with asthma, whose airways are particularly sensitive to environmental irritants, are especially at risk: Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the number of episodes and severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma each year, and secondhand smoke is a risk factor for new cases of asthma in previously asymptomatic children. The morbidity and mortality from secondhand smoke among children unfortunately does not stop with asthma. Secondhand smoke increases the risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), pneumonia, bronchitis, and middle ear infections in infants and school-aged children.
The EPA recommends that every home be smoke-free, especially homes with children. Similarly, the EPA recommends that every company have a smoking policy that effectively protects nonsmokers from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke. The Cochrane Collaboration – an “international, non-profit, and independent organization dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide” – recently completed a review on workplace interventions for smoking cessation (The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2004). Their findings included (1) strong evidence that interventions directed towards individual smokers (such as advice from a health professional, individual and group counseling, and pharmacological treatment to overcome nicotine addiction) increase the likelihood of quitting smoking, and (2) consistent evidence that workplace tobacco policies and bans can decrease cigarette consumption during the working day by smokers and exposure of non-smoking employees to environmental tobacco smoke at work.
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