Tobacco

  If you’re on this website, you probably already know that smoking tobacco is bad for your lungs (not to mention the rest of your body), but you’re curious to learn more so you’ve stumbled onto this page. One of the biggest challenges for tobacco smokers beyond outright quitting, is what to do with the second hand smoke they blow out/exhale when smoking. The best way to deal with this is to go outside. Well, who is outside? Me! My kids! Other non-smokers!

Types of Tobacco Smoke

Smoking Tobacco (1st Hand Smoke)

This is the act of lighting tobacco on fire to create smoke and then inhaling the smoke through the use of a cigarette, cigar, or tobacco pipe. There are many poisons that one inhales when smoking tobacco including 70 carcinogens including acetaldehyde, 1,3-Butadiene, N-nitrosamines, benzene, acrolein, multiple aromatic amines and polyaromatics. Nicotine is the addictive substance that increases a smokers heart rate, blood pressure and blood glucose and gives the smoker that “buzz”.

Second hand smoke

This is what the smoker exhales. The carcinogenic cloud. This contains many of the toxins, poisons and carcinogens that primary tobacco smoke contains but harms the unsuspecting non-smoker. In fact, it’s estimated that 25% of non-smokers in the United States (58 million people!) are exposed to harmful amounts of second hand smoke (1).

Exposure to second or third hand smoke can lead to or exacerbate:

• Asthma

• Allergies from aeroallergens (e.g. pollen, dust, cockroaches etc.)

• Chronic cough

• Throat clearing and other strange respiratory symptoms

• Recurrent respiratory infections

• Eczema

• Cardiovascular disease

• Cancer!

Third hand smoke

This is that smell on a smoker’s clothes, in their hair, the tobacco smell on the upholstery in the apartment or the car. If you can smell it, the effects are still there. We are just starting to understand the impact of third hand tobacco exposure, but already know that it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, impairs wound healing, increases airway inflammation and risk of asthma, causes liver disease and causes hyperactivity disorders in pre-clinical models (2). Models have even predicted an increased risk of developing cancer when exposed to third hand smoke chronically (3). In fact, third hand smoke can have long lasting effects and can become more harmful over time as it “ages”. Particles and residue from third hand smoke undergoes a process called “off-gassing” in which they continuously emit gaseous compounds from the surfaces in which they exist. Go ahead and sit on that old couch where your college roommate used to smoke and suddenly a cloud of dust with third hand smoke particles is resuspended and ready to be inhaled!

Beware of Third Hand Smoke:

• Homes of smokers

• Apartments and homes previously occupied by smokers

• Multi-unit housing where smoking is permitted

• Automobiles that have been smoked in

• Hotel rooms where smoking is permitted

• Other indoor places where smoking has occurred (e.g. casinos)

Vaporizing tobacco

We’re still learning quite a bit about the detrimental health effects of vaping. Yes, vaping is bad. It’s probably slightly less bad than smoking, however it’s still bad for you. There are several large, ongoing studies looking into just how bad vaping is, but there has not been long term data since this mode of inhaling tobacco is so new. Stay tuned!

Whats in Cigarette Smoke?

There are thousands of chemical compounds that are toxic to the human body. Many of these can cause cancer (are carcinogenic). None of them are good for you. The below graphic illustrates some of the more hazardous compounds in cigarette smoke.

References

1. Vital signs: disparities in nonsmokers' exposure to secondhand smoke. Homa DM, Neff LJ, King BA, Caraballo RS, Bunell RE, Babb SD, et. al. s.l. : World Health Organization, 2015, Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 64, pp. 103-108.

2. Cigarette smoke toxins deposited on surfaces: Implications for human health. Martins-Green M, Adhami N, Frankos M, et al. 2014, PLoS One, Vol. 9, pp. 1-12.

3. Exposure to nitrosamines in thirdhand tobacco smoke increases cancer risk in non-smokers. Ramirez N, Ozel MZ, Lewis AC et al. 2014, Environment International, Vol. 71, pp. 139-147.