SecondHand SmOke - How DanGerOus cOuld yOu be

Some people says that second hand smoke is double dangerous for than the smoke inhaled by the smoker himself. So why and how that can be?


Here are some facts about Second Hand smoke:

1 Secondhand smoke is composed of sidestream smoke (the smoke released from the burning end of a cigarette) and exhaled mainstream smoke (the smoke exhaled by the smoker).

2 While secondhand smoke has been referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the past, the term “secondhand” smoke better captures the involuntary nature of the exposure.

3 The 2006 Surgeon General’s report uses the term “involuntary” in the title because most non-smokers do not want to breathe tobacco smoke. The term “involuntary” was also used in the title of the 1986 Surgeon General’s report on secondhand smoke.

4 Secondhand smoke contains many of the same chemicals that are present in the smoke inhaled by smokers. [Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds.]

5 Because sidestream smoke is generated at lower temperatures and under different conditions than mainstream smoke, it contains higher concentrations of many of the toxins found in cigarette smoke.

6 The National Toxicology Program [NTP] estimates that at least 250 chemicals in secondhand smoke are known to be toxic or carcinogenic.

7 Secondhand smoke has been designated as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the NTP, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and an occupational carcinogen by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

8 Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemicals.

9 When nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke, they inhale many of the same cancer-causing chemicals that smokers inhale.

10 There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke: even small amounts of secondhand smoke exposure can be harmful to people’s health.

11 Many millions of Americans continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke.

     A smoke-free environment is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.


     So the question that first came to my mind after reading this is: “So, smokers are safer than non-smokers who became involuntarily a secondhand smoke recipient?”


     I ponder on it for a little while, then I realized, maybe not really. In a chance that you smoke, let’s say 25% of it you inhaled and 75% goes to a secondhand smoke recipient. Then you are beside your buddy also smoking, so he takes 25% of his own, and 75% goes to you, that results for you to have a 100% and the secondhand recipient still 75%, the smoker is still in much danger than the non-smoker, though non-smoker is still not safe.


     So now I think, I maybe smoke very rarely, but I still add to the danger of people around me, polluting the air that we inhaled. My bad. :)

How RaRely dO yOu smOke?

There are times when people asked of me “Do you smoke?” my answer would always be a “No.” But, don’t I really?

Nowadays my answer became “rarely”. How rare? Very, very.

The first time I puffed the awful cigarette was when I was in my elementary years. That was only once. It was during one of those times when there are a lot of people in our house. I can’t remember what the occasion was but I know there was some celebration.

As a kid, my parents would shoed me to some corner, didn’t want me to disturb them to what they were doing (cooking, entertaining visitors, etc.). I was with four others of my cousins almost the same age as me. We were at the corner playing, talking and laughing … when one of us noticed the box of cigarette. The oldest of our group got one and said “let’s try it?” Well, I know it’s not allowed to us, and that our parents would get angry if they found us with that stick, but curiosity is a strong motivator, so why not? So we did, light one and passed along the stick to each one of us. I don’t think we finished that one stick though. It was awful and irritating.

I never tried it again since then, well, until now.

I used to hate cigarette, alcohol and any other vices. I set it as one of characteristics of a guy that I want as a partner … no cigarette, no alcohol, no drugs and no gambling. The first thing that I would ask a guy who would ask to court me is “Do you smoke/drink?” I wouldn’t turn them down if they do, but that would be a minus point.

But what change? What drives me to try those things I despise? The answer? I don’t know. Curiosity, maybe? The hunger for adventure? The wanting to “test or try”? Maybe one of those, or all of those. But I do smoke now, very rarely and drink occasionally.

I say very rarely because, I don’t smoke just because I want to. There are times that I think I crave to do so. Mostly I do crave to smoke whenever I am very depressed or very sad. But even if I do crave I wouldn’t do it immediately. I wouldn’t smoke if a member of a family is there to see me smoke, I don’t want them think I do smoke. I wouldn’t smoke if there are people seeing me smoke, I want to do it alone, or rather if the people around were strangers. I don’t know why, but I don’t want anybody I know, or anybody who knew me, see me puffing those awful stick.

I am aware of the dangers of smoking and drinking, that’s why I am very careful of overtaking it. I know that tobacco is the main content of cigarette, so I want to learn more about it, and how it can be dangerous or what are the benefits from it [tobacco] if there is. I want to know what is there in cigarette that people couldn’t resist, couldn’t stay away from it.

But though I am just starting to learn to smoke..I want to quit it already, too. ^_^