Living with someone who smokes? Are you aware of the fact that you don’t even need to smoke yourself to be at risk of developing lung and other cancers?

Smoke by any other name

Remember that lovely song Smoke gets in your eyes, recorded by Harry Belafonte in the fifties? It’s all about true albeit blind love and how, when your heart’s on fire, smoke gets in your eyes. A beautiful song often sung in smoky bars and restaurants with the audience puffing away at their own cigarettes, pipes and cigars. Unfortunately, they didn’t know then what we know now.

Today, we know for a fact that smoke, not necessarily from a smouldering heart but most probably from a smouldering cigarette, is not good for your heart, eyes or lungs. We also know that active and passive smoking as well as mainstream and side-stream smoke have some nasty, often lethal, side-effects.

What’s the difference?

Mainstream (active) smoke is the smoke that an active smoker exhales after taking a drag on his or her cigarette, cigar or pipe. In the case of cigarettes, the smoke inhaled passes through a filter that is intended to remove some of the tar and nicotine before entering the lungs.

Passive smoking occurs when an unfortunate non-smoker has to inhale a dose of exhaled mainstream smoke together with the side-stream smoke from the smouldering tip of the cigarette being smoked near them. Up to 85% of smoke produced when smoking a cigarette is side-stream smoke.

Lethal side effects

Active smoking

    • Tobacco smoke has more than 7000 harmful chemical compounds. Of these, at least 69 are known to cause cancer, especially lung cancer. They also raise the risk of getting cancer of the mouth, nose and sinuses, throat and voice box as well as of the pancreas, bladder stomach, liver, kidneys, neck of the uterus and bone marrow (myeloid leukaemia).
    • Tobacco smoke raises “bad” LDL cholesterol levels and damages the lining of blood vessels; changes that over time may result in a heart attack or stroke.
    • Smoking during pregnancy has been associated with premature delivery, low birth weight and children with learning and mental problems as well as ADHD later in life.
    • Women who smoke before and during pregnancy are more at risk of having a child with hepatoblastoma, a rare blood cancer.

Passive smoking

    • Side-stream or second hand smoke also contains nicotine and other cancer-causing agents and toxins. A major disadvantage is that the particles in side-stream smoke are smaller than those of mainstream smoke, stay airborne longer and are therefore easier to be breath deep into the unfortunate recipient’s lungs. Side-stream smoke is also derived of the very “slight” benefit of passing through a filter before being inhaled.
    • Side-stream smoke is extremely dangerous for children and has been linked to: sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), more frequent respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, more severe and frequent asthma attacks, ear infections and chronic coughs. Evidence also exists linking it to lymphoma, leukaemia and brain tumours in children.
    • Side-stream smoke has been positively linked to lung and other cancers in adults. An as yet inconclusive but possible link to breast cancer is currently being studied.
    • Side-stream smoke has a proven harmful effect on the heart, blood vessels and circulation that may, in time, cause heart disease, stroke and heart attack.

Who’s the real villain?

It’s obvious that both active and passive smoking hold zero advantage and is bad news all round. However, whereas active smokers have a choice in the matter, innocent non-smoking bystanders and children do not. According to the American Surgeon General there is no safe level of exposure to side-stream smoke and even brief exposure can damage cells in ways that set the cancer process in motion. Unfortunately, children are, on average, exposed to more side-stream smoke than even non-smoking adults. And, it’s a known fact that living with a smoker ups your risk of lung cancer by 20% to 30% − even if you never touch a cigarette!

So, who’s the real villain? You decide!

 

Sources

Karnataka, M. Active v/s passive smoking…which is more harmful? Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/conversations/20145/active_v_s_passive_smoking_w.html
Secondhand smoke. Retrieved from: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/secondhand-smoke
Smoke gets In your eyes. Retrieved from: http://www.shazam.com/track/10810601/smoke-gets-in-your-eyes
Tobacco: active and passive smoking. Retrieved from: http://www.greenfacts.org/en/tobacco/