Second-hand smoke or involuntary smoking, which can cause air pollution and adverse health consequences, refers to the combination of smoke, which fills offices, restaurants and other enclosed premises from the burning of tobacco products like cigarettes, water pipes, and bidis. Tobacco smoke contains over 7000 chemicals, of which hundreds are toxic or poisonous and approximately 70 can lead to cancer (USDHHS 1).
Secondhand smoke causes many adverse health effects among immigrants’ children, and infants, including respiratory infections, severe asthma attacks, and ear infection (USDHHS 1). Some of the adverse health effects in immigrants’ adults due to secondhand smoke include lung cancer and heart disease (USDHHS 1).
Secondhand smoke or passive smoking causes about 46000 premature fatalities from heart disease annually in US among nonsmokers (CDCP 4). Passive smoking at work or at home raises risk of developing heart disease by approximately 25-30 percent (USDHHS 1). Secondhand smoke or passive smoking can interfere with the proper functioning of the heart, or vascular system, and blood in ways, which raise risk of developing heart attack.
Immigrants’ individuals with heart disease are particularly at high risk of having adverse health effects from inhaling secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer among adults who have never smoked (USDHHS 1). Immigrants’ nonsmokers inhaling secondhand smoke at work or at home have increased risk of developing lung cancer by about 20-30 percent (USDHHS 1). Secondhand smoke causes about 3400 lung cancer fatalities or deaths among United States nonsmokers annually (CDCP 4).
Secondhand smoke may cause adverse health effects in immigrants’ children (Task Force on SIDS 9). Research indicates that immigrants’ children whose relatives smoke get sick frequently. Their lungs develop less compared to children who do not inhale secondhand smoke. Moreover, they get more pneumonia and bronchitis. Besides, coughing and wheezing are more frequent among children who inhale secondhand smoke.
Works Cited
American Academy of Pediatrics, Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. “The Changing Concept of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Diagnostic Coding Shifts; Controversies Regarding the Sleeping Environment; and New Variables to Consider in Reducing Risk.” Pediatrics 116. 5 (2010): 6-9. Print.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses-United States, 2000–2004.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 57. 45 (2008): 4. Web. 28 Dec. 2013.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General.” Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 3. 1 (2012). Web. 28 Dec. 2013.
