Matrix Laser Clinics - Smoking Around Children

Smoking around children; The Facts

Second Hand Smoke and Children

Children who live with a smoker are essentially passive smokers. They are forced to breathe second-hand smoke in their own homes and in the family car if there are smokers around them. Research has shown that smoking outside does not decrease any of the risks associated with passive inhalation. Second hand smoke releases the same 4,000 chemicals as smoke that is directly inhaled, but in even greater quantity! Approximately 47 of these chemicals (carcinogens) cause cancer.

Let’s take a closer look at why there is a greater quantity inhaled with second hand smoke versus the smoker themselves.

Cigarettes burn for approximately 12 minutes, but smokers usually only inhale for 30 seconds. This means that, for 11.5 minutes, cigarettes are spewing second hand (side stream) smoke into the air for those around to breathe.
Because side stream smoke burns at a lower temperature than inhaled smoke, it contains:
- 2 times more tar, which gums up lungs and the breathing passage
- 5 times more carbon monoxide, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood

Health Risks of second hand smoke for children.

Children of parents who smoke:

cough and wheeze more than other children
have more ear infections
have reduced lung capacity
have bronchitis and pneumonia more often
make more trips to the hospital
are more likely to develop asthma
suffer more from asthma than non-smokers’ children who have asthma

Over time, children who are exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to:

have a lower ability to take in and use oxygen
develop cancers of the lung (Research on second-hand smoke and the relationship with other cancers is in progress)
suffer from heart disease and stroke

Smoking and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

According to research, if a mother smokes before as well as after the birth, the risk rises. The more a baby is exposed to smoke after birth, the higher the risk. For example, babies whose parents smoke, even where the babies are never actually in the room where people are smoking, are twice as likely to die of SIDS as a baby of a non-smoker.