Secondhand Smoke - Research Paper Example

Secondhand Smoke al Affiliation Secondhand smoke is a one of the most neglected health issues in today’s society.There is a widespread debate over the linking secondhand smoke with development of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and chronic respiratory symptoms among the non-smoking communities who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. The present paper emphasizes on the devastating effects of secondhand smoke on physical and mental health of children, pregnant women, and other non-smoking adults. Scholarly reports of the World Health Organization, Cleveland Clinic and various facts and data from reliable sources have been used as empirical support to the thesis of paper. By criticizing tobacco politics and highlighting financial burden, health hazards, and its prevalence, paper tries to persuade the readers about the danger of secondhand smoke and necessity of adopting effective laws and policies to protect people from secondhand smoke. Secondhand Smoke On 18 June, 2002, Lynn French, a non-smoking flight attendant who worked for TWA airlines from 1977 to 1998 when smoking was still permitted in commercial flights, was awarded astonishing compensation of 5.5 million US dollars by the Miami Jury in a historic verdict against some of the leading cigarette manufacturing companies such as, Philip Morris, Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Brown & Williamson Tobacco unit, and British American Tobacco (A WSJ News Roundup, 2002). The case against tobacco companies was filed under the accusation that Lynn French’s nonstop work in smoky, enclosed cabins of airlines caused significant negative impact on her health, including sinus problem. Lynn suffered from serious sinus infection due to the constant exposure to secondhand smoke, requiring long-term medical treatments (A WSJ News Roundup, 2002). The Lynn’s case is just another example of numerous victims of secondhand smoke all over the world, however, majority of them are not as lucky as Lynn in getting the justice. Today, the number of active smokers is rapidly increasing in the world. Consequently, at the same time, a large number of non-smoking populations, including children, has been exposed to secondhand smoke. Various researches and scientific studies have regularly highlighted serious negative effects of secondhand smoke on the physical and psychological health, yet the issue of secondhand smoking is widely neglected. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize on the severe negative effects of secondhand smoking and necessity of implementing effective measures against it. Concept of Secondhand Smoke Before revealing health hazards of secondhand smoking, it is necessary to flash a light on the concept and certain characteristics of secondhand smoke. According to the official reports of the World Health Organization (WHO), secondhand smoke (SHS), also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is generated from the burning of tobacco products, like pipe, cigar, or cigarettes and from the smoker’s exhaled smoke (Oberg et al., 2010, p.1-2). There are basically 2 types of secondhand smoke. One is side stream smoke which generates from the tobacco products’ burning, and second is mainstream smoke which occurs from the smoker’s puff. From the outer perspective, even though both types of smoke appear to be similar, they actually vary significantly in severity. For instance, side stream smoke consists of more toxic substances than mainstream smoke as there are no filters in passing smoke from direct burning of tobacco products (Oberg et al., 2010, p.1-3). Tobacco smoke usually consists of over 4100 chemical components, out of which almost 260 are poisonous and over 50 are identified as cancer-inducing agents, including benzene, n-nitrosamines, carbon monoxide, acrolein, and formaldehyde by the majority of medical research studies (Cleveland Clinic, 2013). It is found that mainstream smoke is mainly formed of carbon monoxide (4-12%), nicotine (1-9.5%), and particles (16-44%) and constantly emits such chemical in the form of particles, vapors, and gases. Majority of these components are proved to be harmful to humans (Oberg et al., 2010, p. 2). Danger of Secondhand Smoke Secondhand smoke has proven to be dangerous for non-smoking population. Even though any individual who is constantly exposed for secondhand smoke is under the elevated threat of developing various diseases related with it, particular groups are highly prone to the hazardous impact of secondhand smoke. These groups include pregnant women, children, pets and infants, and service sector workers such as, restaurant employees, bartenders, nightclub workers, and employees at workplaces where smoking isn’t prohibited (Cleveland Clinic, 2013). According to the reports of the Cleveland Clinic, toxic chemicals generated from secondhand smoke remain in the surrounding air for almost 4 hours and an exposure to such components for even a minute is considered to be enough to cause certain harms. Depending on the duration of exposure, effects of secondhand smoke varies. For instance, 5 minutes exposure to secondhand smoke causes coagulation of the main artery as much as smoking one cigarette; up to 30 minutes exposure is enough to accumulate fats in blood vessels, increasing the threat of stroke and heart attack; furthermore, 2-3 hours of exposure triggers the risk of inconsistent heart beats, i.e., arrhythmia. In addition, regular exposure to secondhand smoke can trigger various chronic diseases, including lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, emphysema, respiratory and sinus infection (Cleveland Clinic, 2013). The danger of secondhand smoke reflects in the World Health Organization’s latest statistics about worldwide deaths due to secondhand smoke. According to the reports, secondhand smoke is responsible for over 610,000 deaths per year in the world, which is over 2% of all deaths (WHO, 2015). Staggeringly, almost 170,000 of these deaths are among infants and children. It is estimated that over 2 billion non-smokers are at the high risk of developing asthma, respiratory infections, heart diseases, or lung cancer due to regular exposure to secondhand smoke (WHO, 2015). These staggering statistics show that in terms of health, children are the most affected from secondhand smoke, raising a moral question over smoking in public places, workplaces, and even at home in presence of non-smokers. Tobacco Politics There are many researches and studies which strongly reject the link between secondhand smoke and threat of chronic diseases like, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. What makes these researches to present such claims and oppose negative effects of secondhand smoke? The answer lies in a brutal politics and hidden economic interests of tobacco industries and other associated groups. Tobacco industry is one of the largest industries in the US and many other countries. Each year, tobacco companies spend over $10 billion on the marketing of its brand and products in the United States. Also, researches of Tobacco Marketing Studies revealed that tobacco industry sponsors over $ 2 million for federal candidates each year (Toll of tobacco, 2015). Also, it was found that over $18 million were spent by tobacco companies in lobbying federal authorities in the US in 2010. It is a mere glimpse of tobacco industry’s role in politics. Each year, leading tobacco companies spend a massive amount of money to influence local and state governments’ tobacco-related laws and policies. For instance, tobacco giants spent over $130 million in 1998 to defeat the threatening McCain tobacco control bill on the state level (Toll of tobacco, 2015). Considering the economic and political interests associated with tobacco industry, one shouldn’t be surprise about the cases of manipulation and oppression of negative effects of secondhand smoking under the tags like, ‘scientifically proved’, ‘medical research’ or ‘scientific studies’. After examining over 45 million pages of confidential documents about tobacco industry’s politics, UC San Francisco and UC Davis researchers claimed that there are various causes where tobacco companies have sponsored and promotes scientific studies to weaken proven facts blaming secondhand smoke for the development of cancer and cardiovascular diseases (UC Davis Health System, 2015). After analyzing millions of tobacco-companies’ documents, including, scientific studies, letters, and memos, Elisa Tong and Stanton Glantz found that tobacco companies have funded many biological and epidemiological studies that were only meant to support claims that secondhand smoke causes partial or no harm to non-smokers. The researchers found that these biased studies posses flawed methodology of research and highly manipulated results and findings. In other words, tobacco companies’ efforts to influence politics and manipulate scientific studies are the well-planned strategies to protect their political and economic interests and cut the promotion of any kind of anti-tobacco or secondhand smoking-related policies and regulations (UC Davis Health System, 2015). Real Face of Secondhand Smoke According to the factsheets of Campaign for Tobacco-free kids, secondhand smoking costs over $ 6 billion of healthcare and medical expenditures in the US each year. Moreover, it is estimated that secondhand smoke causes almost $160 billion worth of productivity losses, affecting the financial growth in the society (Toll of tobacco, 2015). Besides financial losses, devastating effects of secondhand smoking on health are supported by numerous scholarly researches and studies. According to the reports of the World Health Organization, constant exposure to secondhand smoke is linked with the development of asthma, acute otitis media, low birth weight (LBW), Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), lower respiratory tract infections, and chronic respiratory symptoms among children, while adults are prone to lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, stroke, breast cancer, chronic respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, nasopharyngeal carcinomas and nasal sinus (Oberg et al., 2010, p. 7-41). Also, pregnant women, who are exposed to secondhand smoke, are more likely to suffer with pregnancy complications like, premature membrane rupture, abruptio placentae, and placenta previa which often result in preterm delivery or in some cases infant death (Oberg et al., 2010, p. 15-16). Besides financial burden and health hazards of secondhand smoke, the researchers from John Hopkins University successfully proved that exposure to secondhand smoke of drugs like, marijuana can cause a positive drug test result for even non-smokers in specific conditions (Armentano, 2015). Certainly, it can lead to legal troubles for victims of such secondhand smoke. Conclusion A large amount of literature has regularly highlighted various negative effects on health of people who are regularly exposed to it. There is also tremendous financial burden of healthcare and medical expenses related to secondhand smoke. Bureaucracy of tobacco industry and corrupted authorities are the serious barrier in implementation of anti-secondhand smoke laws and regulations. It is necessary for governments, international organizations, and health centers to promote awareness in society about the effects of secondhand smoke. It is necessary for parents to protect their children from the devastating effects of secondhand smoke by following basic discipline of not smoking in presence of non-smokers. If people follow basic awareness and moral responsibility related to smoking in the public places, workplaces, and even at home, it is possible to reduce the growing number of secondhand smoke victims in the society. . References Armentano, P. (2015, February 23). Study: Secondhand smoke may cause positive drug test. High Times. Retrieved from http://www.hightimes.com/read/study-second-hand-smoke-may-cause-positive-drug test?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm-_campaign=Feed%3A+HIGHTIMESMagazine+(HIGH+TIMES+Magazine) A WSJ News Roundup. (2002, September 16). Florida judge slashes award in tobacco case. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles-/SB1031936999772702715 Cleveland Clinic. (2013, September 26). Smoking. my.clevelandclinic.org. Retrieved from http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/healthy_living/hic_Steps_to_Staying_Well/hic_Dangers_of_Second-Hand_Smoke Oberg, M., Jaakkola, M. S., Pruss-Ustun, A., Schweizer, C., &Woodward, A. (2010). Second-hand smoke: Assessing the environmental burden of disease at national and local levels. WHO Environmental Burden of Disease Series, 18, 1-104, PDF Document. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/SHS.pdf Toll of tobacco in the United States. (2015, February 6). Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Retrieved from http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/facts_issues/toll_us/ UC Davis Health System. (2015). Big tobacco and science: Uncovering the truth. www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved from http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/welcome-/features/20071114_cardio-tobacco/ WHO. (2015). Worldwide burden of disease from exposure to second-hand smoke. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/-publications/shsarticle2010/en/ Read More