Introduction
According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s report on smoking, two and a half million people have died from diseases caused by exposure to secondhand smoke since 1964 in the United States. Most people know that smoking is not only damaging to the health of the smoker but what some people might not know is that smoking is damaging to the people who happen to walk past a smoker on the street. Whether you know it or not, you have been exposed to secondhand smoke, and your life may be at risk. Those 2.5 million people ended up dying just because of the air they breathed. Secondhand smoke can cause multiple health problems and laws prohibiting smoking in public need to be passed in order to help lower the risks of secondhand smoke related …show more content…
In just seventeen days, the mice breathing in the polluted air had increased tumor growth significantly over the mice that were breathing in clean air. The effects of secondhand smoke are not well advertised, even though everyone in the world is exposed. In 2011, a worldwide study conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute found that an estimated “165,000 children younger than 5 years die every year from lower respiratory infections caused by exposure to second-hand smoke” (Oberg, Woodward, & Pruss-Usun, 2011). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, secondhand smoke increases a nonsmoker’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 25 to 30 percent. This results in over 30,000 premature deaths from heart disease each year in the United States alone. In addition to risks of respiratory infection, cancer, and heart disease, researchers studying childhood motor development found that “children with [secondhand smoke] exposure had diminished visual-motor coordination, and less well developed fine motor integration skills, balance, and strength” (Duby & Langkamp, 2015). These are just a few of the major effects that secondhand smoke can have on the human body. Now that the health issues of secondhand smoke have been discussed, lets move on to what people can do to lower these …show more content…
In 2006, Scotland placed a nationwide ban on public smoking. Researchers studied the amount of cotinine levels in non-smoking adults before the ban, and a year after the ban was put in place. Cotinine is a compound found in body fluids that is sensitive to the absorption of tobacco smoke (Haw & Gruer, 2007). “This study provides evidence of a large reduction in secondhand smoke exposure in non-smoking adults in Scotland after implementation of legislation banning smoking in enclosed public spaces. The geometric mean salivary cotinine concentrations in adult non-smokers fell from 0.47 ng/ml at baseline to 0.26 ng/ml after the legislation, representing a 39% reduction in exposure to secondhand smoke” (Haw & Gruer, 2007). A reduction of 39% in just one year is an astounding amount, and it helps to show great promise for other countries that will be enforcing bans on smoking. Even though many places have begun to adopt the smoking bans, it is not yet enough. In 2010, the Cochran Collaboration published a review of 50 studies about various smoking bans across the world. They concluded that prohibiting smoking in public places improves air quality, reduces secondhand smoke exposure, and reduction in hospitalization due to acute coronary syndrome, or heart attacks (Callinan et al., 2010). There are still many places where smoking is allowed in the majority of public places including restaurants and
According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s report on smoking, two and a half million people have died from diseases caused by exposure to secondhand smoke since 1964 in the United States. Most people know that smoking is not only damaging to the health of the smoker but what some people might not know is that smoking is damaging to the people who happen to walk past a smoker on the street. Whether you know it or not, you have been exposed to secondhand smoke, and your life may be at risk. Those 2.5 million people ended up dying just because of the air they breathed. Secondhand smoke can cause multiple health problems and laws prohibiting smoking in public need to be passed in order to help lower the risks of secondhand smoke related …show more content…
In just seventeen days, the mice breathing in the polluted air had increased tumor growth significantly over the mice that were breathing in clean air. The effects of secondhand smoke are not well advertised, even though everyone in the world is exposed. In 2011, a worldwide study conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute found that an estimated “165,000 children younger than 5 years die every year from lower respiratory infections caused by exposure to second-hand smoke” (Oberg, Woodward, & Pruss-Usun, 2011). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, secondhand smoke increases a nonsmoker’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 25 to 30 percent. This results in over 30,000 premature deaths from heart disease each year in the United States alone. In addition to risks of respiratory infection, cancer, and heart disease, researchers studying childhood motor development found that “children with [secondhand smoke] exposure had diminished visual-motor coordination, and less well developed fine motor integration skills, balance, and strength” (Duby & Langkamp, 2015). These are just a few of the major effects that secondhand smoke can have on the human body. Now that the health issues of secondhand smoke have been discussed, lets move on to what people can do to lower these …show more content…
In 2006, Scotland placed a nationwide ban on public smoking. Researchers studied the amount of cotinine levels in non-smoking adults before the ban, and a year after the ban was put in place. Cotinine is a compound found in body fluids that is sensitive to the absorption of tobacco smoke (Haw & Gruer, 2007). “This study provides evidence of a large reduction in secondhand smoke exposure in non-smoking adults in Scotland after implementation of legislation banning smoking in enclosed public spaces. The geometric mean salivary cotinine concentrations in adult non-smokers fell from 0.47 ng/ml at baseline to 0.26 ng/ml after the legislation, representing a 39% reduction in exposure to secondhand smoke” (Haw & Gruer, 2007). A reduction of 39% in just one year is an astounding amount, and it helps to show great promise for other countries that will be enforcing bans on smoking. Even though many places have begun to adopt the smoking bans, it is not yet enough. In 2010, the Cochran Collaboration published a review of 50 studies about various smoking bans across the world. They concluded that prohibiting smoking in public places improves air quality, reduces secondhand smoke exposure, and reduction in hospitalization due to acute coronary syndrome, or heart attacks (Callinan et al., 2010). There are still many places where smoking is allowed in the majority of public places including restaurants and