A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air of second-hand smoke, but experts now have identified another smoking-related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.

That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.

Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics....

Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”...

***

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior. “The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smo...

[varkam]

1. I'm smoking right now.

Mmmmm yummy.

[napi21]

6. So am I, and I suspect if EVERYTHING that caused death was

researched and put into a graph, there would be many other causes other than smoking that are very hazerdous. I've been smoking for a LONG TIME, but I can tell you, it;s bothers me a lot more when I'm waiting at a city bus stop where 50+ busses stop every hour, coupled with all the heavy city traffic idling at the traffic lights. Smoking has been around for a VERY LONG TIME, but only in the last few decades many children are contracting asthma, diabetes, high cholesterol #'s, etc. Surely you're not going to blame that on smoking?

[pnwmom]

67. Many children in the past probably weren't diagnosed with asthma.

I wasn't diagnosed till well into adulthood. Doctors had missed the symptoms when I was a child, and I didn't know enough to realize something was wrong.

I knew I had a problem with cigarette smoke, though. So I thought it was one more "allergy" that I had. The pro-smoking people will say that there is no such thing as an "allergy" to cigarette smoke, that it is "only" an irritant. What they don't tell you is that "irritant" doesn't mean "irritating" or "annoying." "Irritant" is another word for an asthma trigger.

Fortunately, my mother gave up smoking when I was still in elementary school, but there was still a of exposure in the outside world back then. Even in places like doctor's offices and hospitals.

[caseymoz]

73. You've got that right.

I remember being raised in a family full of smokers and having my nasal passages constantly constricted. I had some attacks where I had difficulty breathing, and the family thought it was nervousness.

Smoking has been cleaned up, and I don't have those symptoms anymore.

[pnwmom]

77. When I was growing up they thought asthma was a psychosomatic disease.

And by the time I was a teen, I knew that -- so why would I tell anyone I thought I had an imaginary illness?

Nervousness. Your breathing passages were inflamed and constricted -- darn right you were nervous! I was nervous those three times I had pneumonia as a child, too. Nothing like not breathing to make you feel nervous.

[Kittycat]

142. I have a terrible allergic reaction when I'm near a smoker.

Watery, itchy eyes, difficulty breathing, etc. I grew up in a household of smokers, and by the age of 8 - I could barely breath in the house, and had all sorts of problems leading to my tonsils and adenoids being removed. I also suffored continuous nose bleeds, so bad I would end up in the emergency over it. The drs suggested they stop smoking, and things did get better - but the overall damage was already done.

People's selfishness never seems to amaze me. They'll cry outrage over a coal/ash spill, but blow smoke in the face of their loved ones. They'll fight to save the environment, while polluting their own. Morons.

[yardwork]

213. My younger sister has serious lung damage due to my parent's smoking.

She was prone to asthma as a baby and child, and both our parents smoked. Now she has serious lung damage.

[Taverner]

248. Third hand smoke is a canard

Seriously

[Sultana]

58. ...

You are going to a hell

[varkam]

66. Oh, I already knew that my dear.

Albeit for reasons completely distinct from smoking.

[nomorenomore08]

206. Which hell?

[rucky]

100. After this study, I think I'll take it up again.

[TheEuclideanOne]

118. 4th hand smoke kills too

I am about to jump off of a tall building after reading these idiotic studies of smoking.

[WriteDown]

150. I got 4th hand smoke from looking at an unopened

carton of cigarettes. I am really starting to buzz.

[ronnie624]

178. I have to question your honesty.

But I can't fault you for the lie. It's the nicotine addiction that's talking. Crack and heroine addicts 'enjoy' their fix also.

I know that every time you attempt to exert yourself physically, you wish you could quit. Every time you suffer from an upper respiratory infection, and your breathing becomes ever more difficult, but you can't resist the urge to fire up another one anyway, you pray for the strength to destroy your demon. Doubtless there have been times when you are alone with your cigarette, and you are forced by your solitude into a bit of introspection, you've realized that you don't really 'enjoy' your addiction at all. It irritates your throat, makes you feel generally lousy, destroys your health, and offends other people.

I smoked for exactly thirty years, and I desperately wanted to quit for most them. I finally did it a little more than five years ago and I consider it my most taxing and difficult accomplishment. Now I work out 8-10 hours a week, I have more endurance than I did at twenty, I always feel good, and when I get the flu, it isn't anywhere near as severe as it used to be. I also enjoy the added benefit of spending cigarette money on other things, and my house, cloths and vehicle no longer carry the foul stench of stale cigarette smoke.

Few people are able to quit on the first or second attempt. In fact, most of those who do succeed must try multiple times, and only about 20% make it beyond six months. It is very difficult, but if you keep trying, you just might make it.

[varkam]

194. I actually enjoy smoking.

Thanks for your concern, though.

[grantcart]

180. go cough right ahead cough

[Runcible Spoon]

2. oh for fuck's sake!

Look, smoking is bad mmkay. Smoking around your children is worse, but Kee-rist we have to draw a line somewhere. I can only imagine a nasty neighbor whose hedge trimmers you didn't return calling child protective services on you because he saw you smoking within 5 miles of a child.

If there was one MILLIONTH of the effort and rabid outrage against smoking applied to auto emissions and industrial pollution, our contribution to global warming would be nil.

I wager some of these doctors smell easy grant money and publicity, with a new cute SCARY term to boot.

[chill_wind]

8. Thank you. You beat me to it. All of it. n/t

eom

[99th_Monkey]

76. Couldn't have said it better, so I won't try. Thanks. ~nt~

[TankLV]

190. probably because of all the coughing and hacking...

JUST KIDDING!!!

My partner smokes - I "don't like it" but it's really up to him...I love him dearly, but won't nag him over this...and he seems to be healthier than I am...and he smokes OUTSIDE - even in the freezing cold...

I don't like all these nanny laws - read somewhere that you can't smoke OUTSIDE for chrissake! OUTSIDE!

Before I could move into my house, I had to sprinkle baking soda all over the place and let it sit and vacuum and steam the carpets...

My aunt was such a heavy smoker that my mom and aunts and uncles had to almost throw everything out and strip all the walls, etc. after she passed away before they could sell the house...my sister wouldn't even go for a visit it bothered her so bad - ii WAS that bad...

[ixion]

78. thank you, well said

this anti-smoking crap is just way out of hand.

[notesdev]

124. Seriously

This is totally overboard. Smokers have rights too.

[abq e streeter]

146. Totally agree; let's get rid of all environmental regulations while we're at it

and stand up to those big- government, tree-hugger, liberal environmentalists who are trying to deny us our rights to pollute everything we can .

[ixion]

149. uh, what... you don't think liberals smoke?

you need to get out more.

[abq e streeter]

153. Played in smoky bars, sometimes 6 nights a week, for over 30 years; so have gotten out plenty

and yes, believe it or not, I've noticed that liberals smoke;, though to a much lesser degree than non-liberals in recent years anyway, from my own observation. Most progressives I know are much more health-oriented than others, and considerate of the rights of others to not be poisoned .I was among the musicians who testified to a state Senate committee about an indoor smoking ban that included bars, and it was only the republicans we had to convince, the Democrats were much more ready to support the concept of environmental regulation in the interest of public health ( ended up passing unanimously after our testimony ) . But yes, a few otherwise progressive enlightened people seem to willfully cling on to this one blind spot in their desire for a clean, non-polluted environment when it interferes with their nicotine addiction. Thank you for assisting me in pointing out the hypocrisy.

[ixion]

174. not hypocrisy, my friend, human, very, very human.

we are beautiful, tragically flawed creatures, not automatons.

[abq e streeter]

179. Fair enough; as one who is at least as, if not more flawed than most...

just trying to point out the hypocrisy of progressives who by definition as progressives, stand for clean air, water, food supplies etc, yet rabidly defend poisoning others with cigarette smoke...It IS hypocrisy in my opinion, but that is part of being an imperfect human too I suppose......By virtue of us being on DU, despite some differences on individual issues, we are on the same side of an important struggle for the soul of America; and here's wishing you a great new year, abq e streeter

[Psephos]

209. Do you also think progressives should refrain from using the known protoplasmic poison ethanol?

There are twelve million alcoholics in the U.S. Virtually all of them poison the social fabric, costing lives directly through accidents, killing their own bodies, wrecking families, racking up tens of billions in health care costs, hundreds of billions in economic losses.

How do you feel about progressives' daily use of the known carcinogen gasoline? Are you, by any chance, a driver? Do you cause the emission of automobile smoke into the atmosphere? Do you care that the people in the car behind you must breathe some of what comes out your tailpipe?

What's your opinion on progressives who permit their children to be exposed to the known diabetes facilitator sugar or the known liver poison acetaminophen or the known carcinogen sunlight?

As an aside, what's your take on the carbon dioxide that many progressives exhale?

Ok, I'm done being sarcastic. Your reply lacks all sense of proportion. Each time you breathe out you emit uncounted thousands of micro-organisms from your lungs and sinuses. In the right circumstances, these germs can infect or even kill, especially among the elderly and infants. In a technical sense, you are a continuous biohazard. But in a practical sense, you are just another person.

Your misuse of the poisoning argument shows the same disregard for actual risk as my gedanken paragraph above. Poisons are utterly dependent on dose...you learn this in the first semester of toxicology. An argument that takes no account whatsoever of dose or risk probabilities cannot be treated seriously.

[abq e streeter]

214. wow

A very wise Duer told me that we're better than conservatives because 99% of them are idiots, whereas only 70% of us are. MY argument lacks all sense of proportion? Guess I just met one of the infamous 70%...

[Psephos]

215. fine as an opinion, but dead on arrival as an argument n/t

[ronnie624]

216. Alcohol And Health

Moderate drinkers tend to have better health and live longer than those who are either abstainers or heavy drinkers. In addition to having fewer heart attacks and strokes, moderate consumers of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine or distilled spirits or liquor) are generally less likely to suffer hypertension or high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer's disease and the common cold. Sensible drinking also appears to be beneficial in reducing or preventing diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, bone fractures and osteoporosis, kidney stones, digestive ailments, stress and depression, poor cognition and memory, Parkinson's disease, hepatitis A, pancreatic cancer, macular degeneration (a major cause of blindness), angina pectoris, duodenal ulcer, erectile dysfunction, hearing loss, gallstones, liver disease and poor physical condition in elderly.

<http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/alcoholandhealth.html >

[Psephos]

217. Do you believe that alcoholics are moderate drinkers? n/t

[ronnie624]

219. Your question is purely rhetorical and merits no answer.

An alcoholic can drink in my presence without forcing me to imbibe along with him. The whole point of arguing over second hand or "third hand" smoke is its potential risks to non-smokers. In addition to that, I am certain there is no research that claims there are benefits of any sort associated with smoking tobacco.

The lack of sound logic in many of your arguments seems to suggest that you simply relish contention.

[Psephos]

226. Do you think that alcoholics do not cause harm or damage to others?

In that case, I must conclude there are no alcoholics among your family or friends.

I don't relish contention, and I don't relish the demonization of others who hold different opinions. No one has a monopoly on right thinking.

[ronnie624]

236. Alcoholism does indeed harm others.

However, in order for your analogy to be relevant to the topic of second hand or "third hand" smoke, the act of consuming alcohol by one person, would have to force someone else to imbibe as well. The act of drinking in the presence of non-drinkers does not force their bodies to absorb alcohol. The act of smoking in the presence of others however, does indeed force them to ingest tobacco smoke - a substance laden with toxic chemicals - which is at the center of the issue of second hand smoke. Whether or not tobacco smoke is harmful to the smoker or harmful to others in general terms, is irrelevant to this particular issue.

We now live in an era where it is no longer the norm to regard as weirdos, those who object to being subjected to tobacco smoke. You should be used to it by now.

As for your talk of "demonization", I suppose you are referring to my observation of your penchant for being argumentative, even at the expense of simple logic. If you consider that "demonization", perhaps you should alert on my post. The moderators might agree with your assessment.

[Psephos]

241. It's not the act of consuming, but the act of harming, that's relevant.

The topic of the O.P. is that smoking by one person causes harm to other persons. It's not that smoking by one person causes others to smoke.

You just said: ..."in order for your analogy to be relevant to the topic of second hand or "third hand" smoke, the act of consuming alcohol by one person, would have to force someone else to imbibe as well."

Again, you seem to think that drinking excessively creates risk or harm only for the drinker. Actually, it creates a minefield of risk around the drinker. In the short term, excessive alcohol can lead to traffic and other physical accidents, verbal abuse, violence, and more. In the longer term, it can destroy a family, permanently damage the mental health of affected children ill-equipped to deal with the mayhem, and by diverting medical resources, cheats others of needed medical care. It harms all of us indirectly through loss of work and productivity, increase in medical costs, and social costs associated with cleaning up the damage done by the drinker to family, relatives, and others.

My point is a simple one. You'll have to go back a few cycles in this thread to see it. I'm not here to argue specifically about the risks shoved by drinkers onto others, but rather, to use it as one example among many. The "third-hand smoke" alarmists are happy to moralize with nothing more than a whiff of aspersion but not at all happy to introspect which of their own behaviors might be included in this silly diatribe.

As far as "demonization" is concerned, do you really want me to post links to some of the things you've said about me/to me in other threads when you found out I have some opinions different from yours? Ugly is the kindest description I can offer.

[ronnie624]

243. Convoluted nonsense,

created specifically to perpetuate disagreement. Clearly, you love to argue.

Good day to you, Psephos

[LeftishBrit]

253. It's true that being near an alcoholic doesn't force me to imbibe..

but alcohol is a major cause of accidents and violence to bystanders as well as drinkers.

I drink moderately, don't smoke, and my nose and throat don't like being near smokers - but one can't say that only tobacco is a danger to others. Certainly I'd rather meet a smoker than a drunk on a dark evening.

[tabbycat31]

232. as a non-smoker

do I think alcoholism is bad? Absolutely. I think it's an addiction and disease. Disclaimer. I have a beer every now and then and occasionally a Long Island iced tea.

Not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic. However everyone who smokes is a smoker (from the social smoker who will light up maybe once a week to the chain smoker).

Drinking alcohol does not pollute the air. Smoking does. I left a job at a chain dept store because management allowed the overnight crew to smoke in the (public) bathrooms. It was worse than the bathrooms in high school. I think as an employee, I have the right to take a piss in an environment where I can breathe. I don't think that's much to ask for. Besides what they were doing by allowing indoor smoking was illegal in NY in 2006.

[Psephos]

242. And I think I have a right to take a drive in an environment where no drivers have been drinking

But if a driver had a beer and was driving, I fear her less than the one that had nine beers.

In other words, the risk is relative to the dose. Same with smoke. In terms of my own health, the numbers show the drinkers are an overwhelmingly greater risk to me than the smokers.

I repeat: the drinkers pose far more statistical risk. But you're giving them a pass (possibly because you drink alcohol yourself).

But let's forget about alcohol, for the purposes of discussion. The people in the next car over are worried about a driver who's been using meth or hash or whatever.

Or texting while driving.

Or fighting with his wife or boss.

Or was up too late and didn't get enough R.E.M.

etc.

[madmusic]

222. And you're proud?

As if the club owners and smokers forced you to set up and play in smoke-filled rooms?

There is some logic to this study. After all, something that does not exist does not smell or stink, and smoking particulates do stink. Even as a smoker I sometimes can't stand it.

Still, unless you were playing good Christian music, the particulates of your evil rock 'n' roll undoubtedly polluted the minds and spirits of hundreds if not thousands over the last 30 years.

Someone could do a study finding a certain percentage of your audience ended up in prison.

There is no end to the legislating perfection slippery slope.

[abq e streeter]

223. I hereby apologize...

how selfish and petty of me to put my silly concerns over being exposed to an array of carcinogenic chemicals in order to be able to earn a living as being as important as the rights of smokers to pour those chemicals into my throat and lungs. I'm so ashamed; please forgive me. And fellow progressives, please immediately contact your representatives and demand an end to any and all efforts at environmental regulation, lest we inconvenience those whose god given right to disseminate those chemicals might be affected. Thank you for helping me and hopefully other misguided progressives to see the light. By the way, part of that testimony I've come to be ashamed of concerned a long time, and beloved, local entertainer who is dying of emphysema. I now understand that that's basically tough shit for him; your right to your cigarettes far outweighs his fatal disease in terms of what's truly important.

[Warren Stupidity]

88. don't let any facts get in the way there.

ALBANY, N.Y. - A study released Thursday credits New York's 2003 Clean Indoor Air Act with an 8 percent drop in heart attacks statewide because of reduced exposure to secondhand smoke.

The report, issued by the state Health Department, found that hospitals admitted 3,813 fewer patients for heart attacks in 2004 than would be expected in New York without the indoor smoking ban. Studies elsewhere have reached similar conclusions. In one case, the rate of admissions for heart attacks returned to normal after the ban was lifted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21027964 /

[hughee99]

143. So they can tell which heart attacks were related to second (or third hand) smoke?

I read the article, thought admittedly not the study. I haven't been able to find it yet. Is it possible that fewer people had heart attacks because fewer were FIRST HAND SMOKING?

Here's a little gem from the article that would set off red flags for most people if he was a working on a study that people didn't want to believe.

"Clearly I'm a researcher, but I'm also probably a tobacco control advocate," Juster said. "But I'm a researcher first. If the (clean air) law was not effective I would be reporting that, but the law is effective."

[Warren Stupidity]

152. denial is ugly

the evidence is out there and it is compelling.

[hughee99]

181. Can you please send me a link to the study...

I'm interested in reading how they determine that the heart attacks they were no longer seeing were a result of second hand smoke, as opposed to first hand smoke or other factors.

[Runcible Spoon]

147. gee Mr. Facts, your article is about secondhand smoke and this thread is about so-called "thirdhand"

[Warren Stupidity]

151. The general tone here is "its all bullshit":.

It isn't. The clear evidence of indirect harm from smoking is now becoming undeniable.

[Psephos]

193. It can't by definition be "undeniable" if so many voices are raised to deny it

Third-hand smoke? Because someone with an agenda and a grant says so?

Skepticism is the only corrective we have against speculative science.

[Lorien]

196. The people with an "agenda" are the GOP enabling tobacco pushers

and big pharma, who WANTS you to smoke, get sick, make them rich, then die before you cost them too much money. They'd love it if your filthy habit sickens a few of your family members. Ca-ching! They made a tidy profit from my grandfather and grandmother who both died of smoking related illnesses (only he smoked). You never saw the film "the Insider"? Maybe you should. It might be enlightening.

People deny it because they are, by definition, "in denial" about their addiction and the nature of the substance they're addicted to. They're all Phillip Morris' bitches-and, by extension, the GOPs. Not a single one of the deniers has EVER responded to these facts from the American Lung Association point by point:

Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet

Secondhand smoke, also know as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can cause or exacerbate a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma.1

*
Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).2

*
Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.3

*
Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.4

*
Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.5

*
Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah to 48.7 percent in Nevada.6 Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.7

*
Nineteen states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont - as well as the District of Columbia prohibit smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Montana and Utah prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces, including restaurants; bars will go smokefree in 2009. New Hampshire prohibits smoking in some public places, including all restaurants and bars. Four states - Florida, Idaho, Louisiana and Nevada - prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces, including restaurants, but exempt stand-alone bars. Fifteen states partially or totally prevent (preempt) local communities from passing smokefree air ordinances stronger than the statewide law. Nebraska and Oregon have passed legislation prohibiting smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars, but the laws have not taken effect yet.8

*
Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.9

*
Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 physician office visits per year.10 Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma.11

*
In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of, children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis.12 Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood.13

*
Research indicates that private research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that secondhand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed the finding during the next two decades.14

*
The current Surgeon General’s Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.15

For more information on secondhand smoke, please review the Tobacco Morbidity and Mortality Trend Report as well as our Lung Disease Data publication in the Data and Statistics section of our website at www.lungusa.org, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).



Sources:
1. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
2. Ibid.
3. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available here. Accessed on 7/7/06.
4. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Report on Carcinogens, Tenth Edition 2002. National Toxicology Program.
6. Shopland, D. Smoke-Free Workplace Coverage. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2001; 43(8): 680-686.
7. Halpern, M.T.; Shikiar, R.; Rentz, A.M.; Khan, Z.M. Impact of Smoking Status on Workplace Absenteeism and Productivity. Tobacco Control 2001; 10: 233-238.
8. American Lung Association. State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues (SLATI). May 8, 2008. Available at http://slati.lungusa.org/StateLegislateAction.asp . Accessed on June 10, 2008.
9. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Schuster, MA, Franke T, Pham CB. Smoking Patterns of Household Members and Visitors in Homes with Children in United States. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine. Vol. 156, 2002: 1094-1100.
13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. America’s Children and the Environment: Measures of Contaminants, Body Burdens, and Illnesses. Second Edition. February 2003.
14. Diethelm PA, Rielle JC, McKee M. The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth? The Research Philip Morris Did Not Want You to See. Lancet. Vol. 364 No. 9446, 2004.
15. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available here. Accessed on 7/7/06.


Smoking 101 Fact Sheet

August 2008

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity (disease and illness) and premature mortality (death) worldwide. Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 438,000 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as babies born prematurely due to prenatal maternal smoking and victims of "secondhand" exposure to tobacco's carcinogens. Smoking cost the United States over $193 billion in 2004, including $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in direct health care expenditures, or an average of $4,260 per adult smoker.1

* Cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and approximately 80-90 percent of COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) deaths.2
* About 8.6 million people in the U.S. have at least one serious illness caused by smoking. That means that for every person who dies of a smoking-related disease, there are 20 more people who suffer from at least one serious illness associated with smoking.3
* Among current smokers, chronic lung disease accounts for 73 percent of smoking-related conditions. Even among smokers who have quit chronic lung disease accounts for 50 percent of smoking-related conditions.4
* The list of diseases caused by smoking includes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema), coronary heart disease, stroke, abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, pneumonia, periodontitis, and bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, throat, cervical, kidney, stomach, and pancreatic cancers. Smoking is also a major factor in a variety of other conditions and disorders, including slowed healing of wounds, infertility, and peptic ulcer disease.5
* Smoking in pregnancy accounts for an estimated 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries, and some 10 percent of all infant deaths. Even apparently healthy, full-term babies of smokers have been found to be born with narrowed airways and reduced lung function.6
* In 2005, 10.7 percent of all women smoked during pregnancy, down almost 45 percent from 1990.7
* Neonatal health-care costs attributable to maternal smoking in the U.S. have been estimated at $366 million per year, or $704 per maternal smoker.8
* Smoking by parents is also associated with a wide range of adverse effects in their children, including exacerbation of asthma, increased frequency of colds and ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome. Secondhand smoke causes more than an estimated 202,000 asthma episodes, 790,000 physician visits for buildup of fluid in the middle ear (otitis media, or middle ear infection), and 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases each year.9
* In 2006, an estimated 45.3 million, or 20.6% of adults (aged 18+) were current smokers. The annual prevalence of smoking declined 40 percent between 1965 and 1990, but has been virtually unchanged since then.10
* Males tend to have significantly higher rates of smoking prevalence than females. In 2006, 23.6 percent of males currently smoked compared to 17.8 percent of females.11
* Prevalence of current smoking in 2006 was highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives (32.2%), intermediate among non-Hispanic whites (21.8%) and non-Hispanic blacks (22.6%), and lowest among Hispanics (15.1%) and Asians (10.3%).12
* As smoking declines among the non-Hispanic white population, tobacco companies have targeted both non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics with intensive merchandising, which includes billboards, advertising in media targeted to those communities, and sponsorship of civic groups and athletic, cultural, and entertainment events. In 2005, advertising and promotion by the five major tobacco companies totaled $13.1 billion.13
* Tobacco advertising also plays an important role in encouraging young people to begin a lifelong addiction to smoking before they are old enough to fully understand its long-term health risk.14 Ninety percent of adults who smoke started by the age of 21, and half of them became regular smokers by their 18th birthday.15
* In 2007, 20 percent of high school students were current smokers.16 Over 6 percent of middle school students were current smokers in 2006.17
* Secondhand smoke involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers from other people's cigarettes is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a known human (Group A) carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 (ranging 22,700-69,600) heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers annually in the United States.18
* Workplaces nationwide are going smoke-free to provide clean indoor air and protect employees from the life-threatening effects of secondhand smoke. Nearly 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke free policy in 1999, but the percentage of workers protected varies by state, ranging from a high of 83.9 percent in Utah and 81.2 percent in Maryland to 48.7 percent in Nevada.19
* Employers have a legal right to restrict smoking in the workplace, or implement a totally smoke-free workplace policy. Exceptions may arise in the case of collective bargaining agreements with unions.
* Nicotine is an addictive drug, which when inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body intravenously. Smokers not only become physically addicted to nicotine; they also link smoking with many social activities, making smoking a difficult habit to break.20
* In 2006, an estimated 45.7 million adults were former smokers. Of the 45.3 million current adult smokers, 44 percent stopped smoking at least 1 day in the preceding year because they were trying to quit smoking completely.21
* Quitting smoking often requires multiple attempts. Using counseling or medication alone increases the chance of a quit attempt being successful; the combination of both is even more effective.22
* Nicotine replacement products can help relieve withdrawal symptoms people experience when they quit smoking.23
* There are seven medications approved by the FDA to aid in quitting smoking. Nicotine patches, nicotine gum and nicotine lozenges are available over-the-counter, and a nicotine nasal spray and inhaler are currently available by prescription. Buproprion SR (Zyban) and varenicline tartrate (Chantix) are non-nicotine pills.24
* Individual, group and telephone counseling are effective. Telephone quitline counseling is widely available and is effective for many different groups of smokers.25
* Nicotine replacement therapies are helpful in quitting when combined with a support program such as the American Lung Association's Freedom From Smoking (FFS), which addresses psychological and behavioral addictions to smoking and strategies for coping with urges to smoke.

For more information on smoking, please review the Trends in Tobacco Use report and Lung Disease Data in the Data and Statistics section of our website at www.lungusa.org, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).

Sources:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses United States, 1997-2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . July 2005. Vol. 54;25:625-628 .
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS). Tobacco Use in the United States. January 27, 2004.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Smoking Attributable Morbidity - U.S., 2000. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2003 Sept; 52(35): 842-844.
4. Ibid.
5. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2004.
6. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2001.
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics Reports. Births: Final Data for 2005. December 5, 2007; (56)5.
8. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. State Estimates of Neonatal Health-Care Costs Associated with Maternal Smoking U.S., 1996. Vol. 53, No. 39, October 8, 2004.
9. California Environmental Protection Agency. Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. June 2005.
10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 2006. Analysis by the American Lung Association, Research and Program Services Division using SPSS and SUDAAN software.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Cigarette Report for 2004 and 2005. April 2007. Accessed on February 8, 2008.
14. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General, 1994.
15. Mowery PD, Brick PD, Farrelly MC. Legacy First Look Report 3. Pathways to Established Smoking: Results from the 1999 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Washington DC: American Legacy Foundation. October 2000.
16. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance � United States, 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. June 6, 2008; 57(SS-04).
17. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Office on Smoking and Health. National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). 2006 NYTS Data and Documentation. April 18, 2008. Accessed on April 30, 2008.
18. California Environmental Protection Agency. Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke. June 2005. Accessed on 4/30/07.
19. Shopland DR, Gerlach KK, Burns DM, Hartman AM, Gibson JT. State-Specific Trends in Smokefree Workplace Policy Coverage: the Current Population Tobacco Use Supplement, 1993 to 1999. J Occup Environ Med 2001; 43:680-686.
20. National Institute of Drug Abuse. Research Report on Nicotine: Addiction, August 2001.
21. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 2006. Analysis by the American Lung Association, Research and Program Services Division using SPSS and SUDAAN software.
22. Fiore MC, Jaen CR, Baker TB, et al. Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update. Clinical Practice Guideline. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service. May 2008.
23. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking and Tobacco Use. You Can Quit Smoking. Accessed on October 2, 2007.
24. Fiore MC, Jaen CR, Baker TB, et al. Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update. Clinical Practice Guideline. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service. May 2008.
25. Ibid.
Secondhand Smoke and Children Fact Sheet

September 2008

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cancer causing, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide.1

* Infants and young children are especially susceptible: their lungs are still developing and childhood exposure to secondhand smoke results in decreased lung function. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from cough, wheeze, phlegm and breathlessness.2
* In children, exposure to secondhand smoke causes over 202,000 asthma episodes in children with asthma.3
* The current Surgeon Generals Report states that there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. Even brief exposures can be harmful to children.4
* Infants and children suffer additional acute lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, due to secondhand smoke exposure.5
* Of children 3 to 11 years of age, almost 60 percent, or 22 million, are exposed to secondhand smoke. Almost 25 percent live with at least one smoker, compared to 7 percent of nonsmoking adults.6
* Secondhand smoke exposure causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 visits to health care providers. Middle ear infections are the most common cause of childhood operations and of childhood hearing loss.7
* A California EPA study 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths are annually associated with secondhand smoke exposure.8
* Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk of many other health problems.9
* Babies are 20 percent more likely to be born low-birth weight if their mother was exposed to secondhand smoke during the pregnancy.10

For more information on smoking, please review the Trends in Tobacco Use report and Lung Disease Data in the Data and Statistics section of our website at www.lungusa.org, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).

Sources:

1. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on July 30, 2008.
2. Ibid.
3. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
4. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on July 30, 2008.
5. Ibid.
6. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Secondhand Smoke Exposure in the Home Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on August 28, 2008.
7. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
8. Ibid.
9. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on July 30, 2008.
10. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Preveniton. Preventing Smoking and Exposure to Secondhand Smoke Before, During and After Pregnancy. July 2007. Accessed on September 18, 2008.

View American Lung Association Nationwide Research Awardees for 2008-2009

[Psephos]

204. good copy and paste, but bad relevance - I explicitly referred to "third-hand" smoke

Your reply is all about second-hand smoke. Poisons are a function of dose. Drink 20 liters of water and the dose will kill you. Stand at the seashore and breathe dissolved uranium in the sea spray - it will never hurt you because the dose is negligible.

This third-hand smoke business is exactly that - a business. There are exactly zero double-blind, controlled experiments producing any statistically significant data. It's all a puff of smoke.

btw, I don't smoke, I hate smoking, and I understand better than you probably think what kind of physiological damage the free radicals in cigarette smoke can cause when a smoker inhales them.

Also, I did see The Insider and thought it was excellent.

What I don't think is excellent is when emotion and self-righteousness interfere with the only safeguard we have to improve science: criticism. As soon as someone trots out the "denier" trope and uses authoritarian or conspiratorial conjectures I know that the discussion is no longer scientific.

You could do worse than read some Karl Popper on how science winnows out what's true from what's not.

[Lorien]

198. They never do:

Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet

Secondhand smoke, also know as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can cause or exacerbate a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma.1

*
Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).2

*
Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.3

*
Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.4

*
Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.5

*
Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah to 48.7 percent in Nevada.6 Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.7

*
Nineteen states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont - as well as the District of Columbia prohibit smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Montana and Utah prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces, including restaurants; bars will go smokefree in 2009. New Hampshire prohibits smoking in some public places, including all restaurants and bars. Four states - Florida, Idaho, Louisiana and Nevada - prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces, including restaurants, but exempt stand-alone bars. Fifteen states partially or totally prevent (preempt) local communities from passing smokefree air ordinances stronger than the statewide law. Nebraska and Oregon have passed legislation prohibiting smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars, but the laws have not taken effect yet.8

*
Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.9

*
Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 physician office visits per year.10 Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma.11

*
In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of, children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis.12 Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood.13

*
Research indicates that private research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that secondhand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed the finding during the next two decades.14

*
The current Surgeon General’s Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.15

For more information on secondhand smoke, please review the Tobacco Morbidity and Mortality Trend Report as well as our Lung Disease Data publication in the Data and Statistics section of our website at www.lungusa.org, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).



Sources:
1. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
2. Ibid.
3. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available here. Accessed on 7/7/06.
4. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Report on Carcinogens, Tenth Edition 2002. National Toxicology Program.
6. Shopland, D. Smoke-Free Workplace Coverage. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2001; 43(8): 680-686.
7. Halpern, M.T.; Shikiar, R.; Rentz, A.M.; Khan, Z.M. Impact of Smoking Status on Workplace Absenteeism and Productivity. Tobacco Control 2001; 10: 233-238.
8. American Lung Association. State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues (SLATI). May 8, 2008. Available at http://slati.lungusa.org/StateLegislateAction.asp . Accessed on June 10, 2008.
9. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Schuster, MA, Franke T, Pham CB. Smoking Patterns of Household Members and Visitors in Homes with Children in United States. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine. Vol. 156, 2002: 1094-1100.
13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. America’s Children and the Environment: Measures of Contaminants, Body Burdens, and Illnesses. Second Edition. February 2003.
14. Diethelm PA, Rielle JC, McKee M. The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth? The Research Philip Morris Did Not Want You to See. Lancet. Vol. 364 No. 9446, 2004.
15. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available here. Accessed on 7/7/06.


Smoking 101 Fact Sheet

August 2008

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity (disease and illness) and premature mortality (death) worldwide. Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 438,000 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as babies born prematurely due to prenatal maternal smoking and victims of "secondhand" exposure to tobacco's carcinogens. Smoking cost the United States over $193 billion in 2004, including $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in direct health care expenditures, or an average of $4,260 per adult smoker.1

* Cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and approximately 80-90 percent of COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) deaths.2
* About 8.6 million people in the U.S. have at least one serious illness caused by smoking. That means that for every person who dies of a smoking-related disease, there are 20 more people who suffer from at least one serious illness associated with smoking.3
* Among current smokers, chronic lung disease accounts for 73 percent of smoking-related conditions. Even among smokers who have quit chronic lung disease accounts for 50 percent of smoking-related conditions.4
* The list of diseases caused by smoking includes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema), coronary heart disease, stroke, abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, pneumonia, periodontitis, and bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, throat, cervical, kidney, stomach, and pancreatic cancers. Smoking is also a major factor in a variety of other conditions and disorders, including slowed healing of wounds, infertility, and peptic ulcer disease.5
* Smoking in pregnancy accounts for an estimated 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries, and some 10 percent of all infant deaths. Even apparently healthy, full-term babies of smokers have been found to be born with narrowed airways and reduced lung function.6
* In 2005, 10.7 percent of all women smoked during pregnancy, down almost 45 percent from 1990.7
* Neonatal health-care costs attributable to maternal smoking in the U.S. have been estimated at $366 million per year, or $704 per maternal smoker.8
* Smoking by parents is also associated with a wide range of adverse effects in their children, including exacerbation of asthma, increased frequency of colds and ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome. Secondhand smoke causes more than an estimated 202,000 asthma episodes, 790,000 physician visits for buildup of fluid in the middle ear (otitis media, or middle ear infection), and 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases each year.9
* In 2006, an estimated 45.3 million, or 20.6% of adults (aged 18+) were current smokers. The annual prevalence of smoking declined 40 percent between 1965 and 1990, but has been virtually unchanged since then.10
* Males tend to have significantly higher rates of smoking prevalence than females. In 2006, 23.6 percent of males currently smoked compared to 17.8 percent of females.11
* Prevalence of current smoking in 2006 was highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives (32.2%), intermediate among non-Hispanic whites (21.8%) and non-Hispanic blacks (22.6%), and lowest among Hispanics (15.1%) and Asians (10.3%).12
* As smoking declines among the non-Hispanic white population, tobacco companies have targeted both non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics with intensive merchandising, which includes billboards, advertising in media targeted to those communities, and sponsorship of civic groups and athletic, cultural, and entertainment events. In 2005, advertising and promotion by the five major tobacco companies totaled $13.1 billion.13
* Tobacco advertising also plays an important role in encouraging young people to begin a lifelong addiction to smoking before they are old enough to fully understand its long-term health risk.14 Ninety percent of adults who smoke started by the age of 21, and half of them became regular smokers by their 18th birthday.15
* In 2007, 20 percent of high school students were current smokers.16 Over 6 percent of middle school students were current smokers in 2006.17
* Secondhand smoke involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers from other people's cigarettes is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a known human (Group A) carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 (ranging 22,700-69,600) heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers annually in the United States.18
* Workplaces nationwide are going smoke-free to provide clean indoor air and protect employees from the life-threatening effects of secondhand smoke. Nearly 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke free policy in 1999, but the percentage of workers protected varies by state, ranging from a high of 83.9 percent in Utah and 81.2 percent in Maryland to 48.7 percent in Nevada.19
* Employers have a legal right to restrict smoking in the workplace, or implement a totally smoke-free workplace policy. Exceptions may arise in the case of collective bargaining agreements with unions.
* Nicotine is an addictive drug, which when inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body intravenously. Smokers not only become physically addicted to nicotine; they also link smoking with many social activities, making smoking a difficult habit to break.20
* In 2006, an estimated 45.7 million adults were former smokers. Of the 45.3 million current adult smokers, 44 percent stopped smoking at least 1 day in the preceding year because they were trying to quit smoking completely.21
* Quitting smoking often requires multiple attempts. Using counseling or medication alone increases the chance of a quit attempt being successful; the combination of both is even more effective.22
* Nicotine replacement products can help relieve withdrawal symptoms people experience when they quit smoking.23
* There are seven medications approved by the FDA to aid in quitting smoking. Nicotine patches, nicotine gum and nicotine lozenges are available over-the-counter, and a nicotine nasal spray and inhaler are currently available by prescription. Buproprion SR (Zyban) and varenicline tartrate (Chantix) are non-nicotine pills.24
* Individual, group and telephone counseling are effective. Telephone quitline counseling is widely available and is effective for many different groups of smokers.25
* Nicotine replacement therapies are helpful in quitting when combined with a support program such as the American Lung Association's Freedom From Smoking (FFS), which addresses psychological and behavioral addictions to smoking and strategies for coping with urges to smoke.

For more information on smoking, please review the Trends in Tobacco Use report and Lung Disease Data in the Data and Statistics section of our website at www.lungusa.org, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).

Sources:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses United States, 1997-2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . July 2005. Vol. 54;25:625-628 .
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS). Tobacco Use in the United States. January 27, 2004.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Smoking Attributable Morbidity - U.S., 2000. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2003 Sept; 52(35): 842-844.
4. Ibid.
5. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2004.
6. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2001.
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics Reports. Births: Final Data for 2005. December 5, 2007; (56)5.
8. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. State Estimates of Neonatal Health-Care Costs Associated with Maternal Smoking U.S., 1996. Vol. 53, No. 39, October 8, 2004.
9. California Environmental Protection Agency. Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. June 2005.
10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 2006. Analysis by the American Lung Association, Research and Program Services Division using SPSS and SUDAAN software.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Cigarette Report for 2004 and 2005. April 2007. Accessed on February 8, 2008.
14. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General, 1994.
15. Mowery PD, Brick PD, Farrelly MC. Legacy First Look Report 3. Pathways to Established Smoking: Results from the 1999 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Washington DC: American Legacy Foundation. October 2000.
16. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance � United States, 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. June 6, 2008; 57(SS-04).
17. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Office on Smoking and Health. National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). 2006 NYTS Data and Documentation. April 18, 2008. Accessed on April 30, 2008.
18. California Environmental Protection Agency. Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke. June 2005. Accessed on 4/30/07.
19. Shopland DR, Gerlach KK, Burns DM, Hartman AM, Gibson JT. State-Specific Trends in Smokefree Workplace Policy Coverage: the Current Population Tobacco Use Supplement, 1993 to 1999. J Occup Environ Med 2001; 43:680-686.
20. National Institute of Drug Abuse. Research Report on Nicotine: Addiction, August 2001.
21. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 2006. Analysis by the American Lung Association, Research and Program Services Division using SPSS and SUDAAN software.
22. Fiore MC, Jaen CR, Baker TB, et al. Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update. Clinical Practice Guideline. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service. May 2008.
23. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking and Tobacco Use. You Can Quit Smoking. Accessed on October 2, 2007.
24. Fiore MC, Jaen CR, Baker TB, et al. Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update. Clinical Practice Guideline. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service. May 2008.
25. Ibid.
Secondhand Smoke and Children Fact Sheet

September 2008

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cancer causing, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide.1

* Infants and young children are especially susceptible: their lungs are still developing and childhood exposure to secondhand smoke results in decreased lung function. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from cough, wheeze, phlegm and breathlessness.2
* In children, exposure to secondhand smoke causes over 202,000 asthma episodes in children with asthma.3
* The current Surgeon Generals Report states that there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. Even brief exposures can be harmful to children.4
* Infants and children suffer additional acute lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, due to secondhand smoke exposure.5
* Of children 3 to 11 years of age, almost 60 percent, or 22 million, are exposed to secondhand smoke. Almost 25 percent live with at least one smoker, compared to 7 percent of nonsmoking adults.6
* Secondhand smoke exposure causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 visits to health care providers. Middle ear infections are the most common cause of childhood operations and of childhood hearing loss.7
* A California EPA study 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths are annually associated with secondhand smoke exposure.8
* Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk of many other health problems.9
* Babies are 20 percent more likely to be born low-birth weight if their mother was exposed to secondhand smoke during the pregnancy.10

For more information on smoking, please review the Trends in Tobacco Use report and Lung Disease Data in the Data and Statistics section of our website at www.lungusa.org, or call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872).

Sources:

1. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on July 30, 2008.
2. Ibid.
3. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
4. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on July 30, 2008.
5. Ibid.
6. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Secondhand Smoke Exposure in the Home Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on August 28, 2008.
7. California Environmental Protection Agency. Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Executive Summary. June 2005.
8. Ibid.
9. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, 2006. Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke Factsheet. January 4, 2007. Accessed on July 30, 2008.
10. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Preveniton. Preventing Smoking and Exposure to Secondhand Smoke Before, During and After Pregnancy. July 2007. Accessed on September 18, 2008.

View American Lung Association Nationwide Research Awardees for 2008-2009

[ElsewheresDaughter]

89. exactly...... or the perfume, nail and hair products that are over used by the same people who are

making all the noise....never mind the household cleaning and laundry products

and scented candles are the worst

[arikara]

183. Bingo!

They don't do studies on common products like febreeze that people are encouraged to pollute their environments with. They don't look into the off gassing of toxins such as formaldehyde coming from man-made fabrics, carpets, furniture, walls in the house. Or consider the EMF being emitted by wireless cell and cordless phones. And on top of it all, people are eating dead, processed, chemicalized food from boxes and not allowing their bodies the opportunity to create natural defenses, or to heal. Its no wonder there is so much chronic illness nowadays. I'll bet if they looked at the whole picture, smoking would be only one small piece of a very big puzzle.

[YOY]

106. Thank you.

n/t

[whistler162]

137. I don't smoke and I don't like the after smell of smoking.. BUT....

I agree with you!

[blues90]

230. Get no argument from me.

No on sems to ever look at all the other pollutants and toxins that are released by auto exhaust or smoke stacks or all the pesticides people use without thought and this is because these things are said and sold to be of benefit to mankind.

No one ever wonders where all the dust goes from all the worn down tires , is has to go somewhere, it's heavier than air so it must be on the lawns and floors and water.

[vanboggie]

3. Oh JFC

WTF will they think of next? What a load of crap. I wish anti-smokers would spend more time contributing to work on overcoming the addiction. I'm sick of these "terra!! terra!!" warnings about second hand smoke, much less 3rd. I'm also tired of being branded a threat to society ... a 2nd, now 3rd-hand killer.

Off to feed my addiction now.

[gtar100]

72. Whether all you smokers like it or not, it's a filthy, disgusting habit

Nothing stinks the air up more than cigarette smoke. So you can either take this information as yet another reason to stop or you can go through your mental gyrations of how you're being picked on again to avoid the fact you're not only poisoning yourself but everyone within breathing distance of you. Sure there are a lucky few who can smoke till their 80 or 90 but it sure ain't the lot of you. Mom dead at 60, my good friend at work in the hospital at 64 near death right now, riddled with cancer. Both pack-a-day plus smokers and the doctors said point blank it's the cigarettes. Working in a nursing home I knew a lady who slowly suffocated to death as her lung capacity slowly shrank to nothing because of emphysema caused by smoking. I grew up thinking bronchitis was an annual event, inevitable, sometimes twice a year. But it wasn't me lighting up at six, seven, eight years old.

And for the others in this thread who use auto exhaust and pollution to compare damages and effects, all I can say is *wow*. That's nuts. I hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds.

You want to know how to overcome the addiction? Get sick of it, real sick of it, ashamed of it, disgusted with it. See it for what it is, what it does to you, and to the people around you. You have no idea what you're missing out on because of your choice to smoke.

[vanboggie]

74. Oh gee I didn't know that

on the subject line

Thanks to Chantix I did stop smoking for several months just last year. Unfortunately the addiction drew me back. Two decades ago I quit for two years. I do know the advantages of not smoking and don't need education nor need to be berated. I need help, and I've been through every stop smoking program and have tried every method of quitting available to date (except the patch because of the dangers). Treating smokers who have an addiction surpassed by heroin addiction as if they are weak-willed threats to society does no good. Perhaps if the high sin taxes we paid were put to better use, as in cigarette rehab programs, it would go further than having non-smokers look down their noses at us and hearing the lectures.

I worked for one of the first corporations that banned smoking on the property. If an employee was caught drinking or smoking a joint, they were put on sick leave and sent for rehab. Smokers were told they would be fired if they smoked a legal substance in their own vehicles. Where's the sense in that? We could use rehab centers, too.

People die from a lot of poisons. My mother smoked all her life, lived till 87 and died of other causes. Many people who have never smoked die of lung cancer whether or not they were exposed to that "scary" second-hand smoke. A lot of people die from exposure to other carcinogens.

I'm not saying smoking is good. It sucks. I don't like smelling like an ashtray and don't smoke in my own house. I'm just sick to death of people lecturing and telling me what to do - that's a trait I also despise in RW conservatives. It doesn't work with any smoker, though it apparently makes non-smokers feel very pious. There are a very few programs around the country that are in-patient programs to fight the addiction. When those are available where I live, I'll check myself in.

[arikara]

184. I do empathize with you

I smoked for over 20 years and have been smoke-free for the past 10. It took many many tries to quit, once I even stopped for a full year then started again. But I did finally manage to quit, and without any support group or drugs. This is how...

I picked a date about 3 months ahead that I planned to quit. In the meantime I stopped smoking in the house and car, and stopped drinking coffee which made it uncomfortable and not so pleasant to smoke. I worked on my head. Every time I went outside to smoke, I told myself how much I hated it, how it stunk, how gross and disgusting it was. After I went in I washed well to get the stink off. By the time my quitting date came I had cut down so much and I hated it so much that it was no effort to quit. I barely had any withdrawal symptoms and I never had any urge to take it up again.

Good luck!

[ixion]

79. so is being a judgmental, holier-than-though windbag

so I guess we should outlaw that, too.

[rucognizant]

80. Oh for crying out loud!

? Get sick of it, real sick of it, ashamed of it, disgusted with it. See it for what it is, what it does to you, and to the people around you. You have no idea what you're missing out on because of your choice to smoke. WHAT?????????? sick!
I AM TOTALLY DISGUSTED, but not by my smoking habit,it's the CORRUPTION STUPID!)
I'm missing out on a LOT! Not from smoking, but from the lack of money, the inefficient way society runs these days.......( spent 3/4 of an hour running down to the library to log in to my hotmail account to check it out because I got a spam from some JERK! ( a nonsmoker with nothing better to do?)
In my profession time = money.........almost 50% of my time is drained off by foolishness these days! AND if I don't correct it I PAY A PENALTY! So I squander my time! At almost 70, this is a BIG LOSS!

"others in this thread who use auto exhaust and pollution to compare damages and effects, all I can say is *wow*. That's nuts. I hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds." Youbetcha! I lived in NJ 25 miles east of Philly..........had bronchitis every year............... moved to the coast of Maine 17 1/2 years ago..haven't had bronchitis since!
Since I am busier in my 69 th year than I have been in all my life.....do me a favor will you! Take up a crusade against the BIG FOOD producers!
I haven't been able to afford to eat the way I used to, thanks to the reagan/bush stock market crash & recession of 20 years ago. So I am now in danger of being a diabetic from the HIGH FUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, in CAMPBELLS TOMATO SOUP etc etc etc.............I have to bake my own bread now to avoid hfcs, you CAN"T BUY a commercial loaf without it! WHat with having to grow my own veggies too, to avoid e-coli or irradiated spinach, I hardly have any time left to paint!
Picasso smoked until he died at age 91. but I am sure his food was healthier!

[crispini]

91. "Nothing stinks up the air more than cigarette smoke". BULLSHIT

as a resident of one of the cities with dozens of ozone alert days every year, allow me to inform you of some of those things:

Cement kilns
Cars
Trucks
Lawnmowers
Gasoline powered leaf blowers
Motorcycles
Coal burning power plants

Every single one of those things is worse than smoking. In Los Angeles, a child gets the maximum allowable exposure to chemicals they breathe in the first 10 days of life due to the poor air quality. Yet we continue this anti-smoker jihad on "health" grounds because smokers are individuals and it's easier than taking on the REAL polluters that are making it difficult to breathe in our cities.

[Bluenorthwest]

103. Being a judgmental prig is also a filthy habit

Any person promoting shame as a positive is simply so negative that logic is impossible. Go shame yourself for being so arrogant and presumptive. Hubris is a killer too.
I'd like to discuss your eating habits, in detail. You are in fact what you eat. What do you eat? Do you take prescription drugs? Do you know how much of that crap is in our water table, just because some folks 'need' mood enhancers and uppie yuppie pills? Do you understand that nearly every 'personal' choice you make, that all of us make, impacts others greatly? It is not just smoking, as much as you'd like that to be the case. Procreation, hell, it is destroying our planet, too many people. Got kids? How many?
When you paint your home, what kind of paint do you use? Are you one who wears leather or uses it for upholstery? Criminal level pollution, just for style.
What do you weigh? How tall are you? How often do you have major medical testing? Do you drive for pleasure? Eat meat from factory farms? Are you a drinker?
Don't look too closely. You could not stand it.

[Baby Snooks]

140. Wow?

"And for the others in this thread who use auto exhaust and pollution to compare damages and effects, all I can say is *wow*. That's nuts. I hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds."

There are medical studies showing increased number of cases of asthma in children as a result of air pollution.

There are medical studies showing that many of the common types of cancer associated with smokers also are found in non-smokers.

I get tired of all of this. I am addicted. Have tried it all. Some are not able to break the addiction. I try to be respectful of non-smokers. They, however, are not respectful of me. So you know what? *puff, puff* in their face every chance I get.

This is the same rationale of "if we get rid of the Republicans life will be perfect." All eyes turn to Nancy Pelosi.

I have the right to smoke in my home. Some states would like to tell me I don't have that right. I think the non-smoking movement has gone too far. Clean up the air outside. Then clean up the air inside.

And you know what? My doctor, who was head of internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told me 20 years ago that my concern should be emphysema. I have a history of lung cancer in my family. So I will probably die of lung cancer even if I had never smoked.

I have a friend who has never smoked and never been around smokers apart from restaurants and clubs. She has emphysema. No doubt from all the second-hand and third-hand smoke she's been exposed to.

It couldn't possibly be from living in the most or second most polluted city in the country.

Would I stop if I could? Yes. And don't tell me I could if I wanted to. Not having to put up with people telling me I'm disgusting because I smoke in itself is sufficient motivation to stop. The point is I am one of those who is hopelessly and physically addicted and perhaps in a way I am physically disabled so perhaps I should start suing people for discriminating against me under the provisions of ADA.

In the meantime, if you get abusive in your attitude towards me simply because you feel I should stop smoking to please you, expect to have smoke blown in your face.

[WriteDown]

154. Seems like there are also plenty of studies showing...

the dangers of drunk driving, and the damaging effects of alcohol on the liver. I think we should institute a ban immediately. I mean, how are we ever going to know if a ban works if we don't try....

[Warren Stupidity]

158. last time I looked there is a ban on drunk driving.

there is no particular need to ban self abuse with alcohol or tobacco, however where that self abuse cascades into harm to others, regulation is in order.

[WriteDown]

162. But the ban on drunk driving is ineffective....

Just read the obit column in your paper. We obviously need to ban the source.

[Warren Stupidity]

163. No the ban is effective, just not totally effective.

Drunk driving fatalities are way down. It seems that the trade off between individual rights and public safety is reasonable with both drunk driving and second hand smoke. In neither case is there any need to initiate a general prohibition against self abuse with alcohol or tobacco. If there is valid evidence that third hand smoke constitutes a real danger to public safety, as the evidence for second hand smoke now convincingly does, then it could in fact be justifiable to further restrict your individual right to kill yourself with tobacco.

[Hosnon]

225. I think the point is that it's a half-assed "ban".

The government can pretty much eliminate drunk driving...but the money is against it. One result of a real ban would be the extinction of an entire industry (bars) in any area without good public transportation (most of the U.S.).

In other words, the "ban" is a farce because business would go apeshit if it was real. Shit, DUI arrests would go through the roof if cops simply hung out after about 2:00 a.m. by bars...why don't they? Hmm?

[NashVegas]

199. Baby Snooks

Good luck, when you make the choice to try again.

I smoked for 30 years and only quit when I was good and ready to. All the concerned non-smokers in the world couldn't have done a thing about it.

[harmonicon]

4. oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me

Actual doctors are wasting their time on this? They ought to be ashamed.

[Runcible Spoon]

9. they ought to be ashamed, but they'll get rich off of this instead.

WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN! is quite profitable, and smokers are easy scapegoats for sad, scared people who are too afraid to deal with the actual dangers of life.

[rucognizant]

82. Please........

Won't someone think of the ELDERS? You sre making our lives HELL!

[MindPilot]

19. Yes; according the article the only research was a telephone survey

"Do you agree that (insert name of big scary thing here) is a big scary thing?"

Conclusion:
"Our study clearly shows that people are afraid of the (insert name of big scary thing here)"

[MichaelHarris]

5. I had

cabbage and black-eyed peas New Years day, I got your 3rd hand smoke right here bub.

[Endangered Specie]

17. looks like you had your own 'dropping' at the stroke of midnight

[MichaelHarris]

24. I

made my dog cry

[MindPilot]

7. Radioactive residue on the floor from tobacco smoke?

Riiiight.

[Warpy]

20. Tobacco plants have an affinity for radioactive minerals in the soil

I remember when that information was first published, about four years before the Surgeon General's report of 1964. Chemists and biologists who knew what ionizing radiation did to living tissue couldn't quit fast enough.

Some recent bad news is at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_ud...

Whether or not there's enough in the brown smelly goo clinging to the furniture to be harmful seems like a reach to me. Sucking it into your lungs just isn't that good an idea.

[MindPilot]

31. Way outside my realm of expertise, but surely tobacco isn't the only plant

that uptakes radioactive material & heavy metals from the soil? I have a tough time believing that the levels in a smoker's home would be high enough to even exceed the background radiation.

[Warpy]

34. I think the levels might slightly exceed it

but probably not by as much as the radon from granite countertops.

I'm just guessing here.

It stinks, but I can't believe it's dangerous.

[demigoddess]

55. those other plants aren't treated with chemicals to make them go straight to the brain

that is the purpose of the chemicals added to tobacco in cigarettes. to deliver it to the brain as fast as possible.

[jmowreader]

105. It's NOT the only plant that uptakes radioactive material from the soil

It is, however, a plant we use by setting it on fire.

[Demeter]

70. I Was Cleaning a Smoker's House, and You Wouldn't Believe How Filthy the Walls Were

Brown, and sticky, and thickest at the top of the wall.

[Connonym]

136. and smells like hell

plus the stench clings to stuff in a way that most other scents don't. We get books back from patrons at the library and I gag when I'm checking them in because the smell has permeated the paper. If a book that's been in a smoker's house for 3 weeks smells that bad what do you suppose the house smells like? People can smoke all they want but don't pretend that it doesn't smell or act like there's something wrong with other people for not liking the smell of it. I won't voluntarily sit next to someone who overdoses on cologne and I won't sit next to a smoker either. And having said all that, I will also admit that I'm an occasional social smoker. It doesn't bother me when I'm smoking (probably because my nose is fucked up from the smoke) but when I smell it on my clothes later it makes me gag.

[azygous]

112. A natural incecticide

Farmers use tobacco leaves mixed in with the nesting material of their chickens to kill mites and other parasites. Won't hurt the chickens but it's potent enough to knock off the bugs. Draw your own conclusions, but then there's something in the personalities of smokers that make them especially prone to denial.

I grew up with smoking parents, and if parents could only experience the rib bruising pain a child suffers during an bout of bronchial pneumonia, they'd quit on the spot. But then maybe not. I can recall my mother laughing hysterically when my alergy doctor informed her I was allergic to tobacco. "But she doesn't even smoke!" I could understand the connection at age five. My mother was in denial, obviously. Smoking eventually killed her.

[Warpy]

186. I had one just like her

and had to watch her fight for every breath she took for the last 20 years of her life.

I don't know what it is about addiction that puts people so deeply into denial or threatens them so deeply when something about their drug is changed.

I just know that it'll kill most of them and I know it's a hideous price to pay for it.

[caseymoz]

68. A lot of things have radioactive isotopes in them.

Depends on how fast they decay, and the type of decay. Tobacco does leech a lot of elements from the soil. But if a radioactive isotope is in the tobacco, you could assured that it's also in the soil.

[nc4bo]

10. I'm totally sick of this crap....

When the sheriff and his posse made a huge burglary/drug bust around the corner from me, the last thing I was concerned about was 1st, 2nd and 3rd hand smoke.

I'm much more concerned about the fucking crack that's infested every corner of every town in every city and state.

This fucking crack has turne