First off, let’s start with what passive smoking is.
Passive smoking is when you breathe in another person’s tobacco smoke. Both the smoke from the tip of the cigarette, and the smoke exhaled by someone else smoking a cigarette, is known as passive or second hand smoking.
If you are around a person who smokes, you’re bound to inhale some of the smoke they exhale. There are bigger cons to passive smoking than one might think there is. Tobacco, in no way, is harmless. In fact, smoking any substance will always have side effects to it and it’s bound to cause you harm.
If you are a regular smoker, you might just interest yourself in looking up ” heart specialists near me ” or the best general physicians. Whatever you smoke will have an ill-effect on you in the longer run, if not immediately.
Passive smoking might not be deliberate, but it still qualifies as one way of smoking. And just like regular smoking, it will cause you harm even though you are not the person smoking directly from the cigarette.
The best general physicians in Kolkata say people inhale passive smoke daily if going out in public places or commuting regularly. Someone or the other will light up a cigarette and you’re bound to inhale that smoke knowingly or unknowingly.
So what happens when you passively smoke and what can it do to you?
Cardiovascular Diseases
A common occurrence and a dangerous aftermath of passive smoking, people are 25-30% more likely to develop a cardiovascular disease if they are exposed to secondhand smoke.
The probability of suffering a stroke also goes up if you’re passive smoking. This happens because passive smoking does not sit well with your blood pressure. If you have existing problems with your blood pressure, passive smoking will absolutely not solve the problem.
Passive smoking affects high blood pressure particularly badly and can lead you to a fatal stroke.
Respiratory Diseases
Inhaling toxic smoke has all the chances of causing respiratory diseases. Someone with asthma or bronchitis should wear a mask and make sure they keep themselves protected.
Smoking is never recommended to anyone in any case. Instead, we urge you to not do it. Smoking will only make things worse for you than they already are.
Cancer
Smoking, active or passive, raises chances of developing cancer in any individual by 30%. People with a family history of cancer or existing lung problems and diseases are best recommended to not smoke anymore and take necessary measures to undo the damage they have caused to themselves.
Passive smoking can cause lung cancer, which is one of the easiest ways to open a book. People have suffered from leukaemia, lymphoma, breast cancer, etc. due to unhealthy exposure to tobacco smoke or smoking directly.
The worst thing about passive smoking is the fact that it can happen to anyone at any time. A pregnant woman could be passive smoking and so could be a child. It’s not really illegal unless the people are carrying substances. Carrying your kids is legal. Change your baby and don’t let anyone else touch them.
Also, even though passive smoking is basically inevitable for many people, one could take care to wear a mask, seek medical diagnosis, get a doctor and stay safe from potential complications in the future. However, it would be nice to try as best as you can to keep kids and aged people away from the remote possibility of passive smoking. A four year old or even a ten year old inhaling tobacco smoke is absolutely not the one of the best things to make a part of your day.
So the question remains,
Is passive smoking more dangerous than normal smoking?
And the answer is, smoking is never ever good. So there is no particular difference between smoking and smoking someone else’s air. The lack of oxygen will hit you and do it’s damage.
To avoid this, try to give up smoking. If not, limit your intake. Switch to chewing candy for a change or just exercise all your self control that you need to in order to stop smoking. Self control sounds a lot nicer than lung cancer. “Prevention is better than cure” goes the good old saying still.
Dr. Amitabha Saha is a leading heart specialist in Kolkata and has been serving many years as one of the best general physicians. Contact him for any emergency situation where assistance could be made. Dr. Saha has been serving patients for over more than a decade and welcomes you to a better and more organised life with his guidance.