One of the most common problems communities are facing is smoking. Due to people’s daily stress, smoking is becoming an escape. The most common causes of debates between teenagers and their parents are because they want to smoke. The teenagers use smoking as a way to try to impress others and integrate into their community. At the same time, parents try to protect them by prohibiting cigarette use and avoiding lousy health outcomes. However, the most common issue we forget is secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking, which is the unintentional inhalation of toxic gases from active smoking, the environment, or other sources.
In the following blog, we will tackle the effect of smoking on the smoker’s health, the occurrence of second/third-hand smoking, and smoking during pregnancy.
Smoking’s effect on health
All the components present in the cigarette are harmful, not only nicotine. Dependency is the main problem associated with nicotine. Whereas carbon monoxide has severe health consequences where causing strokes, cancers, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Because it replaces oxygen in circulation, a study shows that about 15% of global death is related to smoking.
Smoking outcomes are detrimental not only to the smoker itself but also to the surroundings. Therefore, the secondhand smoking topic should be tackled, and spreading awareness on this topic is a must.
What is secondhand smoke? Is secondhand smoke real?
Secondhand smoke has, in many settings, the same results as smoking. According to some studies, 2.5M adults have died since 1964 due to secondhand smoking. For this reason, we can say that secondhand smoke is real. It affects people,, and most importantly, it needs a quick solution.
Secondhand smoke is an issue that you can’t ignore or avoid in your life. It exists in every environment or even in all surroundings because of the heavy smokers you face everywhere. Therefore, when we start tackling the topic of secondhand smoke, many questions come to mind. For example: “is secondhand smoke worse than smoking? Does secondhand smoke kill? Can you get secondhand smoke from clothing? Is secondhand smoke bad?”.
Secondhand and active smoking are similar in causing stroke, heart attack, or even death. When people smoke indoors or in a room with poor ventilation, both secondhand smoke and smokers are affected similarly. Secondhand smoke outside or sitting in a room with good ventilation helps the smoke emit into the atmosphere and scatter everywhere, which will have less impact on other nonsmokers.
The problem of passive smoking is not only in the health issues they cause. It also resides in the fact that a passive smoker does not know the outcomes. So he will not give any importance to his hypertension, chest pain, or headache, thinking he has no risk factors for any dangerous disease.
Secondhand smoke and drug test
When we say “secondhand smoke,” we don’t mean unintentional tobacco smoking only; it might also be the accidental inhalation of cannabis or marijuana smoke. When a person smokes marijuana, the surrounding people also may feel dizzy, sleepy, or confused. So the first question that comes to mind is: What about drug testing? Can secondhand smoke fail a drug test?
Testing for marijuana or cannabis relies on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in urine, blood, saliva, or hair follicles. Each test has its duration. A urine test remains ready to detect weed drugs until a month after use. While saliva tests for only twenty-four hours after their service.
Any marijuana smoker will have a positive test, which will remain positive,, consistent with the frequency and duration of smoking. In passive smokers, the drug test will be positive when the quantity of THC is high. This happens when people sit in a closed room with poor ventilation (closed windows and doors, AC/fan turned off). So, can you fail a drug test for secondhand smoke?
Yes, you can. The drug test sounds negative when secondhand smokers sit with active smokers in a room with good ventilation where the amount of THC is low.
What is Third-Hand Smoking?
Third-hand smoke is another smoke that sticks to carpets, furniture, clothing, bed, and many more. These solid surfaces have more impact on nonsmokers because the polluted area doesn’t get clean easily. Opening the window, cleaning the ground, or washing can’t remove the remains of smoking. So smokers and nonsmokers are exposed to harmful gases for an extended time, which puts them in danger of developing allergies and asthma. Studies show that direct exposure to third-hand smoke results in health problems and poor quality of life.
Smoking exposure in pregnancy
A study shows that 14.4% of pregnant females suffer from preterm birth due to smoke. Moreover, smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of sudden and inexplicable death of a newborn before the first year, Where it is shown that sudden death infant syndrome (SIADH) is highly prevalent (2300 babies /year in the US).
Also, a child’s mental health is highly related to smoking, where it is proven that most children are exposed to tobacco either during the fetal development phase or early after birth. As a result, they have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or autism. Not only is smoking bad, but also passive smoking is. For this reason, we recommend keeping the pregnant female and the baby in a smoking-free area.
How much is secondhand smoke terrible during pregnancy?
One-time exposure to secondhand smoke in pregnancy is enough to decrease the blood necessary for the fetus’s life and development. For this reason, a study shows that congenital disabilities (lip cleft, heart anatomy problems) is the main consequence of smoking exposure. Second, smoke is unsafe during pregnancy if it affects unborn and newborn babies besides their mothers.
In addition to all of these, smoking reduces the chances of getting pregnant. So when a woman wants to have a baby, she should stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke to increase her fertility.
Finally, secondhand smoke is as dangerous as active smoking. Exposure to secondhand smoke and weed enlarges arteries in response to increased blood flow, which will have dire consequences on the human cardiovascular system and harm the respiratory and nervous systems. Therefore, awareness campaigns are always needed to spread knowledge on the harm of active or passive smoking, especially concerning pregnant females and newborns.
