Health risks of secondhand smoke
In reviewing the evidence of the health risks from secondhand smoke, the Government’s independent Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke causes a range of serious medical conditions, including:
- Lung cancer
- Heart disease
- Asthma attacks
- Childhood respiratory disease
- Sudden infant death syndrome
- Reduced lung function
The World Health Organisation has classified tobacco smoke as a known human carcinogen. The US Environmental Protection Agency classified secondhand smoke as a ‘class A’ human carcinogen – along with asbestos, arsenic, benzene and radon gas.
The US Surgeon General published a 700 page report in June 2006 on the consequences of exposure to secondhand smoke, which examined the scientific and medical evidence about secondhand smoke and health. The report found that:
- The only way to protect non-smokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors.
- Exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer.
When publishing the report, the US Surgeon General said:
The science is clear: secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease in children and non-smoking adults.
Although it is difficult to estimate actual numbers of deaths, in 2005 the British Medical Journal published research that exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace is likely to be responsible for the deaths of more than two employed people each working day. This means 617 deaths per year, 54 of them estimated to be in the hospitality industry.
Some of the killers in secondhand smoke
- Tar is known to cause both cancer and lung damage.
- Carbon monoxide is a gas found in car exhaust fumes.
- Benzene is found in petrol fumes and causes leukaemia.
- Ethanol is used in anti-freeze.
- Ammonia is used in cleaning products.
- Formaldehyde is an embalming fluid.
- Hydrogen cyanide is an industrial pollutant.
- Arsenic is effectively rat poison.
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.
- (PAH) is found in diesel exhaust.
