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Second-Hand Smoking

*Secondhand smoke is also referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke
*It's made up of main-stream smoke, which is smoke exhaled by the person smoking, and side-stream smoke, which comes off the burning tip of a cigarette
*Secondhand smoke annually causes an estimated 53,000 deaths nationwide
*Most scientists consider side-stream smoke more dangerous than main-stream smoke
*Side stream smoke is not filtered and main-stream smoke is twice filtered, first by the cigarette's filter and second, through the smoker's lung.
*Exposure for as little as 8 to 20 minutes causes physical reactions linked to heart and stroke disease
*Second-hand smoke has twice as much nicotine and tar as the smoke that smokers inhale. It also has five times the carbon monoxide which decreases the amount of oxygen in our blood
 



                     What's in Second-Hand Smoke?

*Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 substances, of which more than 40 are known to cause cancer.

These carcinogens include:

::arsenic. nickel, chromium, cadmium, lead, polonium-210, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, benz(a)anthracene, benzo[b]fouoranthene, benzo[j]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, chrysene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, dibenzo[a,I]pyrene, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, indeno [1,2,3-c,d]pyrene, 5-methylchrysene, quinoline, dibenz[a,h]acridine, dibenz[a,j]acridine, 7H-dibenzo[c,g]carbazole, N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosoethylmethylamine, N-nitrosodiethylamine, N-snitrosopyrrolidine, N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosonornicotine, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone, N-nitrosoanabasine, N-nitrosomorpholine, 2-toluidine, 2-naphthylamine, 4-aminobiphenyl, acetaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, benzene, acrylonitrile, 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, 2-nitropropane, ethylcarbamate, hydrazine::

* Even if smoking takes place in just one room, the harmful chemicals in the cigarette smoke spreads throughout the house. Many of these highly dangerous chemicals are invisable.