Secondhand Smoke Injures You and Your Baby

By Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai

If you smoke a tobacco product, you ought to know the danger in doing so and therefore should stop. If you’re pregnant and smoking or exposed to secondhand smoke while being pregnant, you are exposing both yourself and your baby to harmful chemicals. This can lead to a number of serious health problems, including:

• Premature birth

• Miscarriage

• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

• Lower birth weight than expected

• Learning problems

• Attention­ deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Health risks related to smoking continue to rise more and more for as long as the pregnant woman smokes or is even exposed to smoke. Quitting smoking altogether during pregnancy helps, and the sooner you quit the better. All pregnant women should keep as far away from secondhand smoke as possible and they should ask any smokers around them not to smoke when they’re nearby.

About Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke is defined as the smoke that a person who smokes a tobacco product breathes out from their lungs after inhaling. It can come from the tip of a burning cigarette, pipe or cigar. The smoke contains around 4,000 different chemicals, many of which are considered dangerous to humans, and more than 50 have been proven to cause cancer. Whenever secondhand smoke is inhaled, the person is automatically exposed to these harmful chemicals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated that when adults are exposed to secondhand smoke, it can cause lung cancer even in those who don’t smoke. The EPA estimates that secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year to nonsmokers. Secondhand smoke has also been proven to increase the risk of heart disease along with causing numerous other health­ related problems.

Your Children’s Health

Infants aren’t immune to these risks. They have a higher risk of SIDS when they’ve been exposed to secondhand smoke. And children exposed to secondhand smoke tend to have a higher risk of more serious health problems, or the problems they have may become worse.

Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke can have more:

• Coughs and colds

• Respiratory problems, like pneumonia or bronchitis

• Ear infections

• Tooth decay

Children of smokers also tend to cough and wheeze more than children who grow up in a non-smoking home, and they seem to also have a more difficult time getting over colds, causing them to miss more school days. Secondhand smoke can also cause numerous other symptoms including headaches, eye irritation, stuffy nose, sore throat and hoarseness.

Children who have asthma tend to be especially sensitive to the effects of secondhand smoke. Asthma attacks can be more frequent and the attacks may be more severe.

Long ­term Effects

When children are exposed to their parents’ tobacco smoke, they themselves are more likely to take up the habit. Children and teenagers who smoke are affected by the same health problems as adults, and secondhand smoke may also cause problems for them in later life. These can include:

• Cataracts

• Poor lung development

• Lung cancer

• Heart disease

Secondhand smoke is everywhere

The problem with secondhand smoke is that both children and adults can be exposed to it almost everywhere. Even if there are no smokers in the home, children can still be exposed to secondhand smoke in places like the following:

• At the mall

• At sporting events or concerts

• In a restaurant

• In parks or playgrounds

• At school

• At a friend’s home

• At a relative’s home

• At the home of a babysitter

In 2004, The National Survey on Environmental Management of Asthma and Children’s Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke (NSEMA/CEE) (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) produced a report containing the following key findings regarding secondhand smoke:

• 11% of children ages 6 years and under are exposed to ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) or secondhand smoke in their homes regularly (4 or more days per week) compared to 20% in the 1998 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

• Children’s parents are responsible for 90% of children’s exposure to ETS.

• Exposure to ETS is higher and asthma prevalence is more likely in households with low income and low education levels.

• Children with asthma have as much exposure to ETS as children without asthma.

The key findings for adults:

• ETS is a human lung carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers.

• ETS has been classified as a Group A carcinogen under EPA’s carcinogen assessment guidelines. This classification is reserved for those compounds or mixtures which have been shown to cause cancer in humans.

The key findings for children:

• ETS exposure increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

• EPA estimates that between 150,000 and 300,000 of these cases annually in infants and young children up to 18 months of age are attributable to exposure to ETS. Of these, between 7,500 and 15,000 will result in hospitalization.

• ETS exposure increases the prevalence of fluid in the middle ear, a sign of chronic middle ear disease.

• ETS exposure in children irritates the upper respiratory tract and is associated with a small but significant reduction in lung function.

• ETS exposure increases the frequency of episodes and severity of symptoms in asthmatic children.

• The report estimates that 200,000 to 1,000,000 asthmatic children have their condition worsened by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

• ETS exposure is a risk factor for new cases of asthma in children who have not previously displayed symptoms.

Millions of children everywhere breathe in secondhand smoke daily. Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke because they are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and they have little control over their indoor environments.

It’s been proven that secondhand smoke is especially harmful to a child’s health because their lungs are still developing. If a parent smokes around children or they’re exposed to secondhand smoke at home or in other places, there is the considerable danger because of the exposure to the chemicals in secondhand smoke. The most sensible way of eliminating this exposure is to stop smoking completely and remember.. .

Executive Director

EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

0244 370345/ 0264370345/0208844791 abdulai.alhasan@gmail.com/eanfoworld@yahoo.com