How many of us feel that our rights to fresh, smoke-free air are violated every time we walk into a pub, dance club, or even a hotel lobby? Apart from the immediate eyes and throat irritation which you get, many of us do not realize that one of the major hazards of second hand smoking is that one is inhaling unfiltered cigarette smoke. Hence the carcinogen levels one is exposed to through passive smoking can be up to 100 times higher than those inhaled directly through cigarettes. How many of us who love dancing, or listening to relaxing music in a hotel lounge have to give up these activities, because we get sick after frequenting these joints? Is the government doing anything about this? They tried to curb smoking habits by displaying pictures of tar-stained post-mortem lungs on cigarettes packaging. I laughed my head off when I saw this. They allow people to smoke in enclosed air-conditioned rooms, yet hope to prevent people from smoking just by displaying “discouraging” pictures on the packaging. Do you think this is effective?

There is mounting body of evidence of the health risks of second-hand smoke. A working group from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of the World Health Organization, examined all of the major studies looking at smoking and cancer in 2002. They found that non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke are between 20% and 30% more likely to develop lung cancer. The experts also found cancers of the stomach, liver, uterus, cervix, kidney and myeloid leukemia could be caused in part by smoking. The group of 29 experts from 12 countries found second-hand tobacco smoke was carcinogenic to humans and that typical levels of passive exposure have been shown to cause lung cancer among people who have never smoked. This means hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide from these cancers could now be linked to smoking. In Singapore, seven tobacco related deaths and 3 lung cancer deaths occur daily. The mortality rate from smoking-related diseases in Singapore is 466 per 100,000 population.

What Is It?

Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke, is a mixture of two forms of smoke from burning tobacco products:

• Sidestream smoke: smoke that comes from a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar
• Mainstream smoke: smoke that is exhaled by a smoker

When nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke absorb nicotine and other compounds just as smokers do. The greater the exposure to secondhand smoke, the greater the level of these harmful compounds in your body. 70% to 80% of second hand smoke comes from the burning cigarette tip, which contains the greatest amounts of nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and many other carcinogenic chemicals.

Secondhand smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and exposure to secondhand smoke is sometimes called involuntary or passive smoking. Secondhand smoke contains more that 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals.