Does secondhand smoke contain harmful chemicals?

Secondhand smoke contains 4,000 chemicals; 250 of those chemicals are harmful to us and 50 cause cancer. Learn more from Randy P. Martin, MD, about secondhand smoke.

Transcript

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There's been some controversy about women having an increased risk of developing breast cancer with secondhand smoke,

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but there is no controversy about the fact that secondhand smoke is very, very harmful to children.

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Secondhand smoke has 4,000 chemicals in it. 250 are very harmful to us and 50 can cause cancer.

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In fact, when you look at secondhand smoke, there are nearly 600,000 deaths worldwide attributable to secondhand smoke.

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In the United States, it's estimated that 46,000 people die of heart related problems every year

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if they are living with or exposed to secondhand smoke. Those 46,000 are not primary smokers.

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There's also it's related about 3,400 cases of lung cancer every year due solely to secondhand smoke.

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In fact, if you live with a smoker and you're a nonsmoker, you have a 20% to 30% increased risk of developing lung cancer.

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There's been some controversy about women having an increased risk of developing breast cancer with secondhand smoke,

01:10

but there is no controversy about the fact that secondhand smoke is very, very harmful to children.

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A child exposed to secondhand smoke has an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, much more frequent ear infections.

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In fact, it's a big cause of middle ear infections. Colds, bronchitis, more severe asthmatic attacks.

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And finally, a pregnant woman who's exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke is more likely to have a low birth weight baby.

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So unequivocally, secondhand smoke is bad for you. And in communities where they banned a lot of smoking

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in restaurants and things like that, we see tremendous increase in the health, decrease in heart attacks and strokes,