Health news, tips and features: Healia Health Blog

April 22nd, 2008

Removing Secondhand Smoke To Clean Our Air

Health News posted 4 years ago by The Healia Team

Despite recent laws limiting tobacco smoke exposure, millions of people are still exposed to polluted air from smokers in the workplace, public places, or in their home. One way we can be environmentally friendly and health conscious on this Earth Day is to keep our air clean and free of secondhand smoke.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in adults who do not smoke. They estimate that exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year in nonsmokers.

Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous for children because they are developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and have little control over their indoor environments. Secondhand smoke can increase the risk of bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, and severe asthma attacks in children. Secondhand smoke is also responsible for the following:

Increase in the number of asthma attacks in children.
Increase in the severity of asthma symptoms in children.
Increase in the risk of heart disease.
Increase in respiratory tract infections in children under 18 months of age.

For information on asthma or how to stop smoking, visit Healia Communities to ask an expert a question or to join the Tobacco or Asthma Communities. Also, for an extensive look at asthma, visit Healia’s Health Guide: Asthma.