About secondhand smoke
Like a lot of people, you may think that other people’s tobacco smoke is simply a bit unpleasant. But it is much worse than that. Secondhand smoke is harmful to health.
Secondhand smoke comes from the tip of a cigarette and the smoke that is breathed back out by the smoker. Wherever people smoke, there is secondhand smoke in the air although you might not notice it because it is almost invisible and odourless.
Even if you open a window, secondhand smoke will still be present in a room after two and a half hours! Even if you can’t see or smell any smoke, it’s probably still there. Smoking in a car is even worse because all of the smoke is concentrated into a small space.
People that breathe secondhand smoke are at risk of the same diseases as smokers, including cancer and heart disease, because secondhand smoke contains 4,000 toxic chemicals.
It is estimated that secondhand smoke causes thousands of deaths each year.