Key takeaways
- Secondhand smoke contains dangerous chemicals and carcinogens.
- Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause respiratory issues.
- Pregnant women exposed to smoke are at risk of SIDS.
- Pets can also suffer from secondhand smoke.
- Quitting success improves with professional help.
In Australia, there are strict regulations around chimneys and smoke emissions, and for good reason. Whether it’s smoke from burning leaves, wood, or even cigarettes, all of it contains harmful chemicals and carcinogens.
These rules are in place to protect not just the environment but also the people around us from the dangerous effects of inhaling toxic fumes.
The same applies in industrial settings. Workers must always wear proper protective gear, especially when they’re exposed to fumes in areas with poor ventilation.
Failing to do so can put their health at serious risk. This can be compared to the dangers of secondhand smoke in homes or other enclosed spaces.
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When someone smokes indoors, everyone in the room is breathing in the same toxic chemicals, even if they’re not the ones holding the cigarette.
Secondhand smoke is particularly harmful to children and pets, who are often more vulnerable to its effects. It’s not just about your own health—smoking around others means you’re putting their health in danger too.
Keep reading to explore how secondhand smoke impacts both the environment and the well-being of those around you, especially the more vulnerable ones like kids and animals.
What Is Secondhand Smoke?
Cigarettes, fireplaces, and pretty much anything that burns are some of the most common sources of secondhand smoke.
Even vehicles with combustion engines, no matter how well-maintained or fuel-efficient they might be, still contribute to smoke emissions.
So, whether you’re lighting a cigarette or burning wood in a fireplace, it’s important to remember that smoke doesn’t just affect you.
It impacts the health of anyone nearby—humans and animals alike. Once anything starts burning, it releases harmful smoke into the air, which can pose risks to those around, whether you’re aware of it or not.
It’s not just about your own well-being, but also about the safety and health of others close to you.
What Is In Secondhand Smoke?
Inhaling secondhand smoke starts as soon as you catch a whiff of it, whether from a cigarette or other sources. It might seem harmless at first, but here are some chemicals in secondhand smoke that make it so dangerous:
Carbon Monoxide: This is an odourless gas, so you won’t even realise it’s there, but it’s already doing damage.
Beyond just car exhaust, carbon monoxide is present in secondhand smoke and interferes with your red blood cells’ ability to carry oxygen around your body.
Sulphur Dioxide: Unlike carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide has a distinctive smell that’s easily noticeable.
When inhaled, it can cause breathing problems and even trigger asthma attacks, as it leads to bronchoconstriction or the narrowing of the airways.
Metals: Cigarette smoke contains metals like cadmium, lead, arsenic, and zinc. These metals can build up in the body over time, leading to serious health problems.
Aldehydes: These compounds are often found in industrial cleaners, including formaldehyde, which is commonly used for embalming.
Aldehydes are notorious for causing respiratory irritation, and long-term exposure can lead to severe lung damage.
Particulate Matter: While cigarettes have filters designed to catch many harmful chemicals, they don’t catch everything. Secondhand smoke still contains irritants that escape the filter.
And because our lungs are made for breathing clean, fresh air, this can lead to coughing, wheezing, and watery eyes in anyone nearby.
Why Secondhand Smoke Is Dangerous
As you can see, the chemicals produced by smoke listed earlier are irritants and can cause dangerous lung damage to the smoker and people and pets in the area with the following effects.
The Effects of Breathing In Secondhand Smoke
When you walk into an open smoking area and stay for a while, you’ll probably feel your eyes starting to water after a few minutes.
A few more moments later, you’ll start coughing and wheezing, a clear sign that you’ve already inhaled a substantial amount of secondhand smoke irritating the lungs and increasing its mucous production.
Later on, you’ll feel breathing has become laborious, requiring more effort as your bronchial tubes start to constrict. People prone to asthma attacks may feel their symptoms worsening.
Child-bearing women exposed to cigarette smoke are at a significantly increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Remember that secondhand smoke reduces the blood’s capacity to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the body, especially to the unborn baby with many nutritional needs.
Smoking with children in the room greatly endangers their developmental and respiratory development. Nicotine has adverse cognitive effects on children, affecting their learning capabilities and frontal lobe development.
Frequently inhaling cigarette smoke also permanently affects their sense of taste and smell and will impair their lung development, causing possible long-term breathing issues and capacity to provide oxygen to the body.
Living with a dog, cat, or any other pet? It’s important to stop smoking for their sake as well.
Due to their smaller bodies and sensitive organs, pets are in grave danger when inhaling smoke or accidentally consuming contaminated food or licking areas cigarette smoke has touched (this is known as thirdhand smoke).
Anyone who has lived with a smoker who consumes tobacco in the same room is also at a higher risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer.
A person with comorbidities from diabetes and other severe diseases will likely feel their symptoms worsen after years of inhaling the compounds in secondhand smoke.
Asthma Episodes From Secondhand Smoke
People with asthma suffer greatly from the short and long-term effects of cigarette smoke. Breathing is already laborious for them, and inhaling the compounds in smoke will cause their bronchial tubes to constrict further, making breathing difficult.
Moreover, asthmatic people produce more mucous in their airways, doubling the effort to breathe in enough air for oxygenation.
More importantly, asthma medications that help provide relief will become drastically ineffective the longer an asthmatic person inhales secondhand smoke.
If you have a child or anyone who suffers from asthma attacks, especially if they’ve been in this condition for a long time, it’s probably time to stop smoking for good on their behalf, and for your sake as well.
Facts About Secondhand Smoking
Now that you know about the dangers of secondhand smoke, it’s time to see its lethal impact on people around chronic smokers.
There are about 7,330 deaths from lung cancer and 33,950 deaths from heart disease each year due to the long-term inhalation of secondhand smoke. The same report we cited also indicates that between 1964 and 2014, 2.5 million people died due to stroke caused by smoke inhalation from other sources.
Secondhand smoke is also the main cause of productivity problems in the workplace.The report mentions that employees exposed to secondhand smoke and tobacco consumption have poorer performance in handling their tasks.
All this data shows that secondhand smoking isn’t harmless. It’s extremely harmful – and it’s a problem that’s easily preventable by stopping smoking for good.
The Effects of Secondhand Smoke: Is It Really Worth It?
It’s clear as day to see that secondhand smoke endangers the people you love the most – even your pet, who unconditionally loves you. The best way to return their love and concern for you is to ensure they remain healthy by quitting smoking.
The best part about it is once you stop smoking, you also make yourself healthier, happier, and more productive in achieving everything you’ve dreamed of.
If you want to start your quit journey, we can help you.
Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around!
If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.
Link Reference:
- https://fireplaceinstallationmelbourne.com.au/fireplace-regulations-in-australia/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644853/
- https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/E-cigarettes_and_teens/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44318/
- https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/news/where-theres-secondhand-smoke/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK179276/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK179276/