The health hazards of exposure to secondhand smoke are well recognized by experts in the healthcare field. Secondhand smoke is the tobacco pollution resulting from burning tobacco. There are two forms of secondhand or passive smoke, mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke. Mainstream smoke is that which a smoker exhales. Sidestream smoke is the smoke which comes directly from the burning tobacco product. Either form unfortunately is harmful to innocent individuals who involuntarily engage in passive smoking as a result of it the tobacco pollution caused by the willful smoker.
If it were not bad enough that nicotine which is a powerfully addictive substance with harmful health effects is present in passive smoke, tobacco also produces more than 4000 chemicals of which 250 are toxic. Worse yet, 50 of the chemicals in passive smoke are felt to be carcinogenic or cancer-causing. Some of those cancer-causing chemicals are as follows:
* Benzene — A component of gasoline
* Formaldehyde — A chemical used for embalming corpses
* Hydrogen cyanide — A highly poisonous gas used in chemical weapons
* Carbon monoxide – An important gas comprising automobile exhaust
The Surgeon General issued a report in 2006 concluding that secondhand smoke can kill and that there is no safe amount of passive smoke. The report also concluded that the greater the degree of passive smoke exposure the greater the health risks.
Some alarming statistics relating to secondhand smoke exposure are as follows:
* In the United States alone 126 million people non-smokers are exposed to passive smoke at home and/or at work.
* In the United States 50,000 people per year die because of exposure to passive smoke.
* In the United States approximately 3000 deaths per year occur because of lung disease in non-smokers caused by passive smoking.
* Exposure to secondhand smoke increases non-smokers’ risk of developing lung cancer by between 20% and 30% and their risk of developing heart disease by 25% to 30%.
* Exposure to passive smoke causes the development of respiratory conditions such as pneumonia and bronchitis in between 150,000 and 300,000 children under the age of 18 months, causing between 7,500 and 15,000 to be hospitalized.
* More than 40% of children who require visits to emergency rooms for severe asthma attacks live in homes where smoking occurs.
Given the alarming facts and statistics about the harmful effects associated with the exposure to secondhand smoke, it is important to determine your degree of exposure if you are a non-smoker in a home where someone smokes or if there is a possibility that you are an unwitting victim of passive smoking in the workplace.
Thanks to an instant result quantitative nicotine test kit that can be used in the home it is now possible to determine not only if you are exposed to passive smoke, but also your degree of exposure. There is also a quantitative test kit designed for professional use. Each kit comes in two types. One requires the use of a urine specimen for testing. The other uses saliva.
By determining your degree of secondhand smoke inhalation you can then take the necessary actions to address one of life’s serious health hazards.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purpose only and is not intended to be a replace medical consultation with a qualified professional. The author encourages Internet users to be careful when utilizing medical information obtained from the Internet and to consult your doctor before make decisions that can affect your health or if you are unsure about your medical condition.
Posts tagged ‘Silent’
During recent years cancer has become a common disease though no human being wants to think of it. Hence it has become an important medical concept. There are different types of cancer are being introduced day by day. Different types of cancer attack the patients differently. One of the devastating cancer known as ovarian cancer has become very popular in recent days. The ovarian cancer affects its patient (women) very severely. It is a silent killer. This cancer attacks the ovaries or one of these. For these reasons, in order
Due to the cancer in ovaries the ovaries or one of these grow malignantly. While this type of cancer attacks the cells containing in the ovary grow abnormally and at such an increasing rate such that it becomes impossible to control these growth. The tumor is not gown in the ovaries or one of these and spread to whole body rather it is grown in the other parts containing in the body and spread towards the ovaries or one of these. This cancer has become a quite common in the United States.
The cancer can attack any women regardless of the age. Thus, every woman of all ages should know its symptoms. The woman whose age is fifty or more is generally at the dangerous risk of the cancer. Generally these symptoms cannot be observed in the primary stage of the cancer. Thus, there is a large possibility to be delayed to detect the symptoms from a woman.
There are not so many symptoms and they may be treated foolishly as other diseases symptoms. Some of the most common symptomsare described below.
Abdominal bloating is the first of the ovarian cancer symptoms. This bloating is caused by having excessive amount of fluid contained in the cavity of the abdomen. And it creates serious discomfort. Soon the abdomen becomes swelled abnormally. As the abdomen also swells because of various other health problems, a common problem is over eating, this initial one symptom is usually kept overlooked.
Abdominal bloating also creates an abnormal pressure in the stomach. Due to this pressure the patient can also lose her appetite of taking food. Besides, even after having a meal which is extremely light, due to this pressure, she may feel fullness of stomach. When the tumor grows it exerts pressure on the bladder. It also causes the patient experiencing other side diseases such as gas, frequent urination, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation etc.
One of the ovarian cancer symptomsis feeling pain in the pelvic area. This pain is caused by swelling abnormally in the pelvis.
The patient may also suffer from unexpected loss or gain of weight. Since this is also can be caused by the changing of food habit this symptom may easily remain overlooked.
Though rare, in postmenopausal stage abnormal bleeding may also be experienced by a woman which is one of the vital ovarian cancer symptoms.
