Second-Hand Smoke essays

Second-Hand Smoke essays In recent years, the cigarette industry has come under attack for a variety of issues, including second-hand smoke. It is important to examine the effect this second-hand smoke has on non-smokers. The use of tobacco "remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 440,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more the $75 billion in direct medical expenses. Nationally, smoking results in more than 5.6 million years of potential (tobaccofreeqc.org/adult/secondhand_smoke.shtml)." People who are exposed to secondhand smoke run the risk of dying from the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. There are thousands of chemicals, many which are extremely toxic, released in tobacco smoke, and this smoke is the only source of most of these chemicals. "Some of the smoke is inhaled by the smoker, but a larger amount of smoke is released into the air. Two-thirds of the smoke from a cigarette is not inhaled by the smoker (tobaccofreeqc.org/adult/secondhand_smoke.shtml)." Secondhand smoke (SHS), "sometimes referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning ends of a cigarette, pipe, cigar, bidis, and kreteks (sidestream smoke) and the smoke emitted at the mouthpiece and exhaled from the lungs of smokers (mainstream smoke) (cdc.gov/tobacco/>)." The smoke inhaled by the smoker contains almost the exact same chemicals as found in secondhand smoke, however, secondhand smoke may actually contain a higher chemical concentration. Secondhand smoke is composed from a "complex combination of more than 4,000 chemicals, and includes irritants and systemic poisons such as hydrogen cyanide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and formaldehyde. Secondhand smoke contains "at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic or caus...