Secondhand Smoke Facts
Secondhand smoke is the name for the sickening, poisonous
smoke given off by a burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe.
Smokers may claim to have a right to smoke, but nonsmokers
have a more important right to breathe safe air. So the
next time one of your friends lights up in front of you,
fire off these facts about secondhand smoke.
*Secondhand smoke can produce six times the pollution of a busy highway when
in a crowded restaurant.
*Secondhand smoke causes 30 times as many lung cancer
deaths as all regulated pollutants combined.
*Secondhand smoke makes clothes and hair stink.
*Secondhand smoke causes wheezing, coughing, colds, earaches,
and asthma attacks.
*Secondhand smoke fills the air with many of the same
poisons found in the air around toxic waste dumps.
*Secondhand smoke wrecks the smell and taste of food.
*Secondhand smoke causes reddening, itching, and watering
of the eyes.
*Secondhand smoke kills about 3,000 nonsmokers each year
from lung cancer.
*Secondhand smoke causes up to 300,000 lung infections
(such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in infants and young
children each year.
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