Secondhand Smoke Essay

Submitted By poofus19
Words: 1686
Pages: 7
Open Document
Secondhand smoke (SHS) is also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). SHS is a mixture of 2 forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco:
• Sidestream smoke – the smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar and • Mainstream smoke – the smoke that is exhaled by a smoker
Even though we think of these as the same, they aren’t. The sidestream smoke has higher concentrations of cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) than the mainstream smoke. And, it contains smaller particles than mainstream smoke, which make their way into the body’s cells more easily.
When non-smokers are exposed to SHS it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Non-smokers who breathe in SHS take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like smokers do. The more SHS you are exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in your body.
Why is secondhand smoke a problem?
Secondhand smoke causes cancer
Secondhand smoke is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.
Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemical compounds. More than 250 of these chemicals are known to be harmful, and at least 69 are known to cause cancer.
SHS has been linked to lung cancer. There is also some evidence suggesting it may be linked with childhood leukemia and cancers of the larynx (voice box), pharynx (throat), brain, bladder, rectum, stomach, and breast.
Secondhand smoke and breast cancer
Whether SHS increases the risk of breast cancer is an issue that is still being studied. Both mainstream and SHS contain about 20 chemicals that, in high concentrations, cause breast cancer in rodents. And we know that in humans, chemicals from tobacco smoke reach breast tissue and are found in breast milk.
But a link between SHS and breast cancer risk in human studies is still being debated. This is partly because breast cancer risk has not been shown to be increased in active smokers. One possible explanation for this is that tobacco smoke may have different effects on breast cancer risk in smokers and in those who are exposed to SHS.
A report from the California Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 concluded that the evidence regarding SHS and breast cancer is “consistent with a causal association” in younger women. This means the SHS acts as if it could be a cause of breast cancer in these women. The 2006 US Surgeon General’s report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, found that there is “suggestive but not sufficient” evidence of a link at this point.
Research is still being done, but women should be told that this possible link to breast cancer is yet another reason to avoid being around SHS.
Secondhand smoke causes other kinds of diseases and deaths
Secondhand smoke can cause harm in many ways. Each year in the United States alone, it is responsible for:
• An estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are current non-smokers
• About 3,400 nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing SHS
• Worse asthma and asthma -related problems in up to 1 million asthmatic children
• Between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children under 18 months of age, and lung infections resulting in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year
Surgeon General’s reports: Findings on smoking, secondhand smoke, and health
Since 1964, 30 separate US Surgeon General’s reports have been written to make the public aware of the health issues linked to tobacco and SHS. The ongoing research used in these reports continues to support the fact that tobacco and SHS are linked to serious health problems that could be prevented. The reports have highlighted many important findings on SHS, such as:
• SHS kills children and adults who don’t smoke.
• SHS
Show More

Related Documents: Secondhand Smoke Essay

Once Upon A Time

In Nadine Gordimer's “Once Upon A Time”, the theme is about the devastating consequences that can result when one overreacts to fear or perceived danger.The entire story is set about telling its readers that human beings create their own destruction.People cannot allow themselves to be ruled by fear.The setting of the two parts of the story is important,in the first part the setting is at night and the woman is all alone.In the second part people are afraid of colored people out of town who maybe…

Words 549 - Pages 3

Once Upon a Time Essays

was. They didn’t stop to admire things that once were, but instead looked at the different systems and houses that had been broken into. Every week there was more intrusions, even during broad daylight. That scared the family so that they had to take more precautions to keep their family safe. Then they noticed that the cat could still so easily jump their seven foot wall and decided that they needed something so great that it would keep outsiders away once and for all. Both the husband and wife thought…

Words 1087 - Pages 5

Once Upon A Time Woman

The woman, in Once Upon a Time, is innocent ,caring, and overprotective. We can see that she is innocent when she started to believe everything the “wise old witch” also known as her mother in law was saying about people of colour, which was racist and untrue. As she assumed them to be burglars and thieves. Though they were living happily ever after, and had a secure home with no problems, but she was still innocent and didn't know anything about people of colour and how they were being treated…

Words 344 - Pages 2

once upon a time Essay

Government shutdown: President Obama rejects GOP plan to postpone default WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama rejected a Republican plan that would postpone a possible U.S. default because it would not also reopen the federal government, the New York Times reported on Thursday. 

The report came after a group of House Republican leaders met with Obama at the White House. However, U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader Eric Cantor called the budget meeting with Obama "very useful," and said…

Words 1052 - Pages 5

District 9 'And Once Upon A Time'

creation of many texts, such as the texts District 9 and “Once Upon a Time”. District 9 is set after an alien mothership comes to a stop just above the city of Johannesburg, leaving the aliens stranded. The text follows the story of Wikus Van de Merwe, originally a worker for a large corporation, as he slowly turns into one of the aliens and learns firsthand the discrimination and segregation the aliens truly face. The text “Once Upon a Time” is a story within a story, where an author describes how…

Words 1421 - Pages 6

Once Upon A Time Essay Rough Draft

he fought for the rights of his people. During apartheid, the blacks were treated incredibly poorly, and it was a dark time in South African history, an era of suppression and racism. However, the whites suffered from constant fear of rebellion from the blacks even as they were trying to suppress them, and were never truly “free”. Nadine Gordimer’s short story “Once Upon a Time” portrays how everyone suffers under a system such as apartheid, through setting, conflict, and characterization. Firstly…

Words 633 - Pages 3

Irony In Nadine Gordimer's 'Once Upon A Time'

pieces of literature in this chapter “Flood”, “Cinderella”, and “Once Upon a Time”. Irony allows readers to grasp the false sense of reality portrayed in an author’s work through the use of drama, sarcasm (verbal), and situations that take place throughout the work. Irony is a figure of speech used in most cases to give a different meaning to sayings that usually have completely opposite interpretations. In Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, the narrator seems to intertwine two stories that are coupled…

Words 861 - Pages 4

Essay about Once Upon A Time There Was A Chap Calle

Once upon a time there was a chap called Graham Cox. He liked yellow feathers and stood staring sadly at the empty cage in which his beloved canary called Duncan once lived until he died a cruel and painful death. Graham got out a glue stick and stuck a note on the cage. It read: Pls dont stel ma stuuf from ma hoom. There were three irregular knocks at the door. Baron Von Thunderclap strode in along with his best bud Rand Paul. Rand Paul plucked a feather from a cage and said, “Nice day for it.”…

Words 489 - Pages 2

Ap Language Analysis Essay On Imagery

communicate their struggle in reflecting upon their childhood, showing that the speaker is still struggling to deal with growing up and losing the good moments that they remember; communicating to the readers that spending too much time missing what you once had can cause you to enter a state of negativity. The use of imagery paints a picture for the reader of how the speaker reflects upon their past. The bright parts from their childhood are touched upon as the speaker looks back on them. Clear…

Words 494 - Pages 2

Nadine Gordimer Essay on Irony

Burhan Malik Miss Gera ENG 1DA-01 26 November 2012 Once Upon An Unimaginable Fairy Tale: Irony in Nadine Gordimer’s “Once upon a time” Once Upon a Social Issue Fairy tales have always been told to us as children; whether to comfort or entertain us, they always seem to be a part of everyone’s childhood. “Once Upon A Time”, the title is a characteristic of a fairy tale, but she leads the story to an ending that is anything other than “happily ever after” (Gordimer 12). Although Nadine Gordimer’s…

Words 1162 - Pages 5