Second Hand Smoke: Is it as Dangerous as They Say?

Most of the opinions in this article have been formed from anecdotal evidence, personal experience, or common sense. Do these facts automatically negate the opinions as unworthy of the reader's attention? Perhaps, but, the writer will let the reader judge for him or herself. The reader must remember that everyone from the tobacco industry to the medical professions, from pharmaceutical companies to provincial and federal governments all have a not so unbiased position on tobacco and it is difficult to find the truth through all the rhetoric.

But one thing that is not disputed is that smoking is harmful to your health and in many cases will eventually kill you. But this is not what we are discussing in this article. What we are writing about is the harm caused by second hand smoke and whether the dire nature of the messages coming over your television, radio and other media is the truth or just another case of social engineering. Is second hand smoke the killer is it is made out to be?

The writer would suggest you decide for yourself and perhaps try the exercise he is about to describe in the paragraphs ahead. He looked around his family, both immediate and more distant, his friends and the friends of his family members, and has come to the conclusion that if you smoke you will cut some years off your life. His maternal grandmother died at 55 years of age from lung cancer due to smoking. His paternal grandfather died in his 70s and didn't smoke. His paternal grandparents didn't smoke and the grandfather died in his 60s and the grandmother is still alive in her 80s.

As for his parents and his wife's parents, they all smoke and are alive in their 50s or 60s. His sister smokes and is in her 40s. Three of his aunts and uncles smoke and are alive in their 60s. Everyone else either doesn't smoke or does and is less than 50 years of age and alive.

So if we take this anecdotally as the typical average, it means that you will most likely die in your 60s or later from complications surrounding smoking. But what if the writer's family is not typical, but is a family, on both sides (his wife's too), of a type that resists naturally the physical deterioration caused by smoking? We would need to reduce the life expectancy of those in the general public that smoke.

Second Hand Smoke - Page 2

Article by:
FS Staff

Disclaimer: Firstly, the writer of this article is no way educated in medicine. His opinion is just that, an opinion. The writer is also not an accredited physician, nurse or health care professional and will never claim to be.

Secondly, the writer of this article does not work in any capacity with the tobacco industry. He smoked for 22 years and has been a non-smoker for three years at the time of the writing of this article (in early 2007).

Back To Exposure Online Magazine