Medical Edge Newspaper Column

Secondhand Smoke is Confirmed Killer

September 3, 2007
Readers:
The debate on secondhand smoke is over, according to a 2006 surgeon general's report. Smoke from other people's burning tobacco kills, and even brief exposure to it can cause harm.

For years, doctors have known about the relationship between secondhand smoke and cancer. Annually in the United States, about 3,000 nonsmokers get lung cancer due to secondhand smoke exposure.

A recent issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource discusses the topic and presents other adverse health effects attributed to secondhand smoke:

• It causes more than 50,000 cardiac-related deaths each year in nonsmokers.
• It reduces antioxidants in the blood of nonsmokers, which can increase the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol.
• It affects blood vessels of adults almost immediately, causing the inner lining of the arteries to malfunction. Five minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke reduces the ability of the aorta -- the large artery in the chest -- to dilate. Thirty minutes of exposure causes an abrupt reduction in the coronary velocity reserve, the force the heart uses to get going in a "fight or flight" situation.
• In children, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been associated with the mother smoking during pregnancy. More recently, researchers have found that SIDS also is associated with secondhand smoke exposure after the child is born. Secondhand smoke also increases ear and respiratory infections and asthma episodes in children.