Promoting a Smoke-Free Environment

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Promoting a Smoke-Free Environment

• Chapter 20 Tobacco

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Health Risks of Tobacco Smoke

• Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)- or secondhand
  smoke, is air that has been contaminated by
  tobacco smoke.
• ETS is composed of mainstream smoke, the smoke
  exhaled from the lungs of a smoker.
• Sidestream smoke is the smoke from the burning
  end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar.

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Health Risks of Tobacco Smoke

• Since mainstream smoke has been exhaled by a
  smoker, it contains lower concentrations of
  carcinogens, nicotine, and tar.
• Sidestream smoke is more dangerous than
  mainstream smoke.
• ETS from cigarettes, pipes, and cigars contain
  more than 4,000 chemicals.
• Studies have shown that infants and young
  children who are exposed to ETS are more likely
  to develop asthma than their peers who are not
  exposed to ETS.

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Health Risks

• Nonsmokers

• Young Children

• Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths from
  lung cancer every year.
• ETS causes eye irritation, headaches, ear
  infections, and coughing in people of all ages.
• Increases the risk of heart disease.

• Children of smokers tend to have a higher
  incidence of sore throats, ear infections, and
  upper respiratory problems than children of
  nonsmokers.
• Secondhand smoke can slow lung development.
  Children who live with smokers are more likely to
  have weaker lungs than children of nonsmokers.

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Health Risks to Unborn Children and Infants

• Smoking during pregnancy can seriously harm the
  developing fetus.
• Nicotine passes through the placenta,
  constricting the blood vessels of the fetus.
• Carbon monoxide reduced the oxygen levels in the
  blood of the mother and fetus.
• This increases the risk of impaired fetal growth,
  spontaneous miscarriage and prenatal death,
  premature delivery, low birth weight,
  deformities, and stillbirths.

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Health Risks to Unborn Children and Infants

• Babies of mothers who smoked during pregnancy or
  who are exposed to ETS are more likely to die of
  sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Infants exposed to ETS after birth are twice as
  likely to die of SIDS.

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SIDS

• SIDS is the sudden death of an infant under one
  year of age which remains unexplained after a
  thorough case investigation, including
  performance of a complete autopsy, examination of
  the death scene, and review of the clinical
  history. (Willinger et al, 1991).In a typical
  situation parents check on their supposedly
  sleeping infant to find him or her dead. This is
  the worst tragedy parents can face, a tragedy
  which leaves them with a sadness and a feeling of
  vulnerability that lasts throughout their lives.
  Since medicine can not tell them why their baby
  died, they blame themselves and often other
  innocent people. Their lives and those around
  them are changed forever.
• http//sids.org/ndefinition.htm

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Reducing Your Risks

• Try to establish smoke-free areas in the house or
  make a rule that smokers go outside.
• If a smoker cannot always go outside, air
  cleaners can help.
• If you are visiting a home in which someone
  smokes, try to stay outside or in a different
  room as much as possible.

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Creating a Smoke-Free Society

• When a smoker chooses to smoke, that person makes
  a decision that affects his or her health, and
  the health of others.
• According to the Surgeon General, the only way to
  fully protect people from the damaging health
  effects of ETS is to prohibit smoking in public
  places.
• One of the goals of Healthy People 2010 is to
  reduce tobacco use and the number of
  tobacco-related deaths.

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http//www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/uih/uih
_4.htm
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Healthy People 2010

• According to Healthy People 2010, Overall, the
  percentage of adolescents in grades 9 through 12
  who smoked in the past month increased in the
  1990s. Every day, an estimated 3,000 young
  persons start smoking. These trends are
  disturbing because the vast majority of adult
  smokers tried their first cigarette before age 18
  years more than half of adult smokers became
  daily smokers before this same age. Almost half
  of adolescents who continue smoking regularly
  will die eventually from a smoking-related
  illness.

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More Information on Healthy People 2010

• http//www.healthypeople.gov/