Growing up with a dad that couldn’t stop smoking, I worried and thought about the repercussions of second hand smoke. Don’t get me wrong, of course I was worried about his health too as he wasn’t getting any younger, plus the knowledge of how harmful it really is to the lungs didn’t help, but it’s not like me and my mom could just tell him to hey, stop smoking dad.
I also learned before that inhaling the puffed-up smoke was bad for the people around the smoker, but I didn’t fully comprehend the gravity of second-hand smoke then. I didn’t know that it can account to asthma among other negative effects, so to be in a house that smelled and puffed out smoke like a chimney, good luck to me.
The Dangers of Second-hand Smoke
…to you
Secondhand smoke contains 600 chemicals, where 40 of those can give you a life-threatening cancer disease, which is something you do not want to have in your lifetime because it is P-A-I-N.
..to pregnant women
Pregnant women should run fast and away from smokers as their unborn child are extremely vulnerable to contaminants and other harmful substances that the mothers inhale or eat. The puffed out smoke is more dangerous than the actual smoking, because the passed-down smoke contains carbon monoxide, tar, nicotine and more. Continuously being exposed to the secondhand smoke opens the unborn child to health risks such as heart diseases, asthma, and lung cancer.
The chances of the unborn baby from dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS depends on the frequency and severity of the mother getting exposed to the second hand smoke.
.. to children
Children have lower immunity against harmful chemical substances to their body that may just open them up to risks of acquiring health problems like asthma, ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, hearing loss, and respiratory tract infection.
Children have comparatively higher breathing rates compared to the adults due to their smaller lungs. This means that when they inhale the passed-down smoke, they take in the toxic chemicals more intensely and more deeply, which damages their health rather quickly.
A note to the smokers
If you do not care about your own lungs, your health, your future, your life, please be considerate enough to stay away from people who can inhale your passed-down smoke. Especially be sensitive to your children, other people’s children, the pregnant mothers..
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