Q: I’ve lived with my parents, both heavy smokers, for the past
20 years. I’m now moving into a smoke-free apartment. I’m active,
eat a healthy diet, and haven’t suffered from any obvious
smoke-related illnesses. What are the long-term effects of having
been exposed to secondhand smoke for so many years?
Q: I’ve lived with my parents, both heavy smokers, for the past 20 years. I’m now moving into a smoke-free apartment. I’m active, eat a healthy diet, and haven’t suffered from any obvious smoke-related illnesses. What are the long-term effects of having been exposed to secondhand smoke for so many years?
A: We’ve known about the many serious health effects of cigarette smoking – namely, lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease – for half a century. Over the past several decades, it has become clear that it is also dangerous to be exposed to someone else’s cigarette smoke.
Exposure to such secondhand smoke (also known as passive smoking) can boost the risk of lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that about 3,000 people die each year from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke may also play a role in cancer of the cervix, breast, nasal sinuses and bladder.
Although the connection between secondhand smoke and heart disease has been controversial in the past, it’s now widely accepted that secondhand smoke can increase the risk of heart disease. In 1997, a major study from Harvard Medical School found that women who were regularly exposed to cigarette smoke at home or work were much more likely to have heart attacks than those who weren’t exposed.
Another, more recent study of 2,000 non-smoking men looked at blood levels of a substance called cotinine (KOE-tin-een).
Cotinine forms when the body breaks down nicotine, the best known of the nasty chemicals in tobacco smoke. After 20 years, 18 percent of men with the highest cotinine levels had developed heart disease. That’s the same percentage seen in people who are light smokers. Only 10 percent of men with low cotinine levels ended up with heart disease.
A study from New Zealand compared death rates between two groups of people who said they had never smoked. One group lived with smokers; the other lived with nonsmokers. Death rates were 15 percent higher among those who breathed secondhand smoke at home. The report may underestimate the impact of secondhand smoke because it didn’t take into account nonsmokers’ exposure at work or elsewhere outside of the home.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that secondhand smoke is responsible for 35,000 deaths a year. It’s a special risk for people who work in smoke-filled rooms, like waitresses and bartenders. However, growing numbers of restaurants and bars are now banning smoking. And most workplaces are smoke-free.
Once you’re living on your own, you can reduce your future exposure to secondhand smoke by:
• Asking others not to smoke in your home. If someone must smoke inside, limit him/her to rooms where windows can be opened.
• Patronizing smoke-free restaurants or those that segregate smokers, and sitting as far as possible from the smoking section.
• Encouraging friends and loved ones who smoke to quit, and politely telling them you are bothered by their smoke.
For family members and friends who expose you to smoke, remind them that there are many effective techniques to help them quit (see the accompanying table). Smokers who kick the habit cut their risk of heart disease by 50 percent within one year. After 15 years, their risk is close to that of non-smokers. Quitting reduces the risk of getting lung cancer, though not as much as it lowers the risk of heart disease.
To find out more, call a “Quitline.” You can look up your community’s Quitline number on the Internet at www.naquitline.org/map_us.php. These are toll-free numbers in every community where you can talk to knowledgeable people who can point you to free services. Quitline programs double the chances for quitting successfully. In fact, today there are more people in the United States who have quit smoking than there are smokers.
Submit questions to the Harvard Medical School Adviser at www.health.harvard.edu/adviser. Unfortunately, personal responses are not possible.
