Passive Smoking: Assessing the Risks

Everyone knows that secondhand smoke is dangerous. Over the past few weeks, a study was completed by the World Health Organization that showed just how dangerous secondhand smoke really is. The study found that passive smoking most often affects children who live in the households of smokers. The study was conducted in 192 countries and found that it was far more likely for children who lived in the houses of smokers to succumb to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, pneumonia, and asthma. The study focused on the number of smoke-related deaths in particular areas.

This study is incredibly perplexing and worrying in that, each and every day, people come in contact with cigarette smoke. It is incredibly difficult to go an entire day without coming in contact either with someone who smokes or through a place where people are smoking. As a student, it is particularly difficult to avoid cigarette smoke. Many campuses are smoke-free, but there are still some campuses that allow students to smoke outside of the buildings. There is little chance to avoid cigarette smoke.

Even if you are not a smoker and there have been bans placed on smoking, there is little to keep smokers from smoking around you. Due to the fact that America is a free country, there is no way to completely restrict smokers. The fact that children are most often affected is also worrisome. Though I have no children now, I intend to in the future, and not being able to protect them from cigarette smoke is troublesome. Also, I have family members who are smokers and have children who are exposed to secondhand smoke.

Though there is no way for anyone to prohibit smoking from every place, there are several things you can do to minimize your risks. First, avoid places that have no smoking ban. Second, if you know that someone smokes and you want to avoid secondhand smoke, ask them to consider not smoking around you. Third, if you have someone in your household who smokes, ask them to smoke outside or get an air filter for your home to minimize the secondhand smoke in the air. Lastly, if you are a smoker, please consider what you are doing to yourself and those around you; if you feel like you must continue to smoke, please be considerate of those around you and do not expose them to secondhand smoke.

Work Cited

Staff Writer, Passive Smoking 'kills 600,000' Worldwide, www.bbc.co.uk