The Consequences of Smoking Indoors

When you think of smoking cigarettes inside the house, exposure to secondhand smoke is often the first thought. However, secondhand smoke isn’t the only threat lurking in your home. While secondhand smoke is defined as the smoke that comes off the burning end of your cigarette, there is also thirdhand smoke (toxic cigarette particles that settle onto surfaces in your home and clothing), and mainstream smoke (the smoke exhaled by the person smoking the cigarette).

All three of these types of passive exposure to tobacco can pose very serious health risks to both the smoker and the other people living in the home.

Consequences of Passive Smoke Exposure

• Cancer – Secondhand smoke can put your child at an increased risk for lung cancer, breast cancer, throat cancer, brain cancer, and sinus cancer. Based on dust samples taken from the homes of smokers, it’s been determined that thirdhand smoke poses these same risks.
• Cardiovascular Disease – While the risk for cardiovascular disease is less for those exposed to secondhand smoke than it is for the active smoker, the risk is still significant. For example, your children and others living in the home have as much as a 30% increased risk of coronary artery disease. Around 40,000 people each year die as a result of cardiovascular disease caused by secondhand smoke.
• Respiratory Disease – Secondhand smoke and thirdhand smoke are both risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. They can also be triggers for children and adults who suffer from asthma and can increase the risk of pneumonia.
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) – Exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb (active smoke or secondhand smoke) as well as exposure to cigarette smoke as an infant have both been linked with an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS. In fact, up to 61% of SIDS cases have been associated with a parent who smoked cigarettes.

Here at Firestone Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics, we want all of our patients to have healthy and happy lives. Please give us a call to make an appointment at our Firestone, CO pediatric dentist’s office.

For more information on the danger of smoking, or for tips on how to quit, please visit https://smokefree.gov/.