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Secondhand smoke, also known as ETS or environmental tobacco smoke, is a complex mixture of gases and particles that includes smoke from the burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe tip (sidestream smoke) and exhaled mainstream smoke. According to the CDC:

• Secondhand smoke contains at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic, including more than 50 that can cause cancer.
• Secondhand smoke exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
• Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their heart disease risk by 25–30% and their lung cancer risk by 20–30%.
• Breathing secondhand smoke has immediate harmful effects on the cardiovascular system that can increase the risk of heart attack. People who already have heart disease are at especially high risk.
• Secondhand smoke exposure causes respiratory symptoms in children and slows their lung growth.
• Secondhand smoke causes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),
• Secondhand smoke causes acute respiratory infections
• Secondhand smoke causes ear problems
• It also causes more frequent and severe asthma attacks in children.
• There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. Even brief exposure can be dangerous.
• More than 126 million nonsmoking Americans continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke in homes, vehicles, workplaces, and public places.
• Most exposure to tobacco smoke occurs in homes and workplaces.
• Almost 60% of U.S. children aged 3–11 years—or almost 22 million children—are exposed to secondhand smoke.
• About 25% of children aged 3–11 years live with at least one smoker, compared to only about 7% of nonsmoking adults.
• The California Environmental Protection Agency estimates that secondhand smoke exposure causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700–69,600 heart disease deaths annually among adult nonsmokers in the United States.
• Each year in the United States, secondhand smoke exposure is responsible for 150,000–300,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in children aged less than 18 months. This results in 7,500–15,000 hospitalizations, annually.

If not for yourself, think about what you are doing to others whenever you or a loved one lights up. Where is the respect for others and their quality of life? As soon as you realize what you are doing to your body as well as others around you, you will finally come to the realization that it is time to quit smoking! Let Smoke Away help. If not us then perhaps to people in the Smoke Away Support group who have quit with not only Smoke Away but other products and methods. Talk to them. But do something, today.

This just in. If you think by allowing people to smoke is good for your business, you’re sorely mistaken! Studies of restaurants and bars in Boston, New York City, San Francisco and Washington D.C. all show business up since they banned smoking. Chicago went smoke free the beginning of this year.

In the United States, 23 states have already banned smoking in restaurants and bars. A number of other states, including Michigan, are considering it. While many bar and restaurant owners say a smoking ban would hurt business, that appears to not be the case at all.

So you think there’s nothing wrong with a little second hand smoke?

According to a case report by a Michigan State University physician, published in the February edition of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine,  a woman arrived at a bar in Michigan for her shift as a waitress and, according to co-workers, seemed happy and healthy. About 15 or 20 minutes later she collapsed and within a few minutes died.

“This is the first reported acute asthma death associated with work-related ETS,” said Kenneth Rosenman, an MSU professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. “Recent studies of air quality and asthma among bar and restaurant workers before and after smoking bans support this association.”

In 2006, the surgeon general’s report concluded that ETS causes coronary heart disease, lung cancer and premature death. But at that time there was little hard evidence linking ETS to the exacerbation of asthma in adults. ETS for the uninitiated is shorthand for environmental tobacco smoke or “second hand smoke”.

Women who smoke and have a specific genetic makeup are at significant risk for the development of breast cancer, according to a recent study published by the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

A research group led by Christine Ambrosone, PhD, Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences Program, Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and Jenny Chang-Claude, PhD, Professor in Epidemiology at University of Heidelberg analyzed data from 10 of the 13 studies published in the last 10 years in which they evaluated genetic information, smoking habits and breast cancer risk in 4,889 premenopausal and 7,033 postmenopausal women.

Analysis demonstrated a significant interaction between breast cancer risk, smoking, and a specific gene called the NAT2 that produces the enzyme, N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2).

For more information about how to quit smoking, check out the numerous articles in this blog. Or to talk to people trying to quit smoking log onto the Smoke Away Support site and or check out the Smoke Away site for another option to quit smoking.