Passive smoking, also known as second-hand smoke, exposes non-smokers to the smoke exhaled by smokers and can have serious health effects. The World Health Organization estimates that passive smoking causes over 600,000 deaths per year, with women and children being especially vulnerable. Exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory issues like asthma. While laws have been implemented to restrict smoking in public places, enforcement remains an issue, and passive smoking continues to be a serious health risk especially in highly polluted urban areas.

1. SMOKING KILLS YOURSELF & OTHERS

2. PASSIVE SMOKING

3. SILENT KILLER
Passive smoking, often dubbed the ‘silent killer’, is
more dangerous than you believe and the
complications it creates have gone up like never
before. ”Passive smoking is little talked about.
But it’s critical. Getting exposed to second-hand
smoke is just as bad as active smoking and
passive smokers often suffer from lung problems,
breathlessness and allergies,” Ravindra L.
Kulkarni, a cardiologist and director of Just for
Hearts, an organisation for heart care and
lifestyle management, told IANS.

4. W.H.O. ESTIMATION
The first global study on passive smoking estimated
that it causes 600,000 deaths every year. One-
third of those killed are children who are often
exposed to smoke at home, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) estimated. ”Just by getting
yourself exposed to smoke, you unknowingly
expose yourself to all kinds of health problems.
Women and children are especially vulnerable,”
Amol Akhade, a consultant medical oncologist at
International Oncology Services, told
IANS. According to experts, a smoker’s exhaled
smoke is called exhaled mainstream smoke.

5. SECOND HAND SMOKE
The smoke drifting from their lit cigarette is called
sidestream smoke. The combination of mainstream and
sidestream smoke is called second-hand smoke (SHS)
or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).Most of the
smoke that hangs in a room is sidestream smoke, which
contains higher levels of cancer-causing compounds
than mainstream smoke. ”Second-hand smoke is a
common indoor pollutant at homes… sometimes
because of reasons beyond your control, like a guest
smoking, or smoke drifting in from outside. Children in
particular are at risk of serious health effects from
second-hand smoke,” said Aarti Goyal, a health
activist.

6. IRRITATION
According to Kulkarni, there have been rising
number of asthma-like cases and of allergic
reactions because of passive smoking. ”One of the
biggest disadvantage of tackling passive smoking
is that it is not visible, unlike active smoking,” he
said. ”There are not as many studies done of how
many people are affected by it. But from the cases
that we get, we have seen that people exposed to
smoke sometimes suffer from allergic reactions
and it is worse for those with lung problems and
asthma,” he said. Irritation of the eyes, nose and
throat are some of the other complaints.

7. LUNG CANCER
Passive smokers have a higher risk of heart
diseases, doctors say. So if you smoke and
your spouse does not, beware. Studies also
show that long-term exposure to second-hand
smoke can increase the chances of lung cancer
by 20-30 percent. Chances of
artheosclerosis, or narrowing of the
arteries, also increases in cases of long-term
exposure to second-hand smoke.

8. ILL - EFFECTS
While measures have been adopted to curb the
ill-effects of smoking by means of putting a law
in place that bans smoking in public places,
poor implementation remains a problem. ”The
risk of passive smoking is rising rapidly among
the urban population. Banning smoking is one
of the strategies to minimise the bad effects,
but implementation is a major issue,” Akhade
said.

9. HIGH POLLUTION
”The high pollution level increases the risk more,”
said Kulkarni. Spreading awareness may be a way
to curb the problem. Anoop Jain, an occasional
smoker, for instance, had no idea about the harms
of passive smoking. ”I smoke occasionally when I
am under stress. I know it is harmful to my health,
but I had no idea that it was so harmful to my
family too,” he said. ”It is especially scary that
our kids get exposed to so much second-hand
smoke every day! At home, the situation is under
our control, but what about outside?” asked Rani
Mehra, a mother of two school-going children.