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Read Dr. Elena Krasnov's Weekly Column in the Health & Fitness section of the 24 Hours Magazine. Look for new articles every week!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Suffering from Second Hand Smoke

Q: Dear Elena: Both of my parents have smoked cigarettes for as long as I can remember. I am now 20. They both won't stop for their own health, but I figure if I tell them how it has and will affect my health they may stop. I know that it can make all of us more susceptible to cancer, but what kind of other health problems can occur?

A: You are absolutely right in thinking that your parents' smoking is affecting not only them but you as well, especially if they smoke in the house. It has been well documented and widely known that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is deadly for all concerned.  Secondhand smoke is a combination of: Mainstream smoke: exhaled by smokers and Sidestream smoke: given off by the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. The combination of mainstream and sidestream smoke makes up environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).

Between 70% and 90% of non-smokers in the North American population, children and adults, are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. It is estimated that only 15% of cigarette smoke gets inhaled by the smoker. The remaining 85% lingers in the air for everyone to breathe. If a person spends more than two hours in a room where someone is smoking, the nonsmoker inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes. Secondhand smoke is the third leading preventable cause of disease and early death. For every eight smokers who die from smoking, one innocent bystander dies from secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke contains over 4000 chemicals including more than 40 cancer causing agents and 200 known poisons. Secondhand smoke has been classified Class A carcinogen - a substance known to cause cancer in humans. Secondhand smoke contains twice as much tar and nicotine per unit volume as does smoke inhaled from a cigarette. It contains 3X as much cancer-causing benzpyrene, 5X as much carbon monoxide, and 50X as much ammonia. Secondhand smoke from pipes and cigars is equally as harmful.

Medical research has shown that non-smokers suffer many of the diseases of active smoking when they breathe secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer, cervical and bladder cancer and contributes to the development of heart disease. Never smoking women who live with a smoker have a 91% greater risk of heart disease. They also have twice the risk of dying from lung cancer. Never-smoking spouses who are exposed to secondhand smoke have about 20% higher death rates for both lung cancer and heart disease. Secondhand smoke increases heart rate and shortens time to exhaustion. Repeated exposure causes thickening of the walls of the carotid arteries (accelerates atherosclerosis) and damages the lining of these arteries.

When a pregnant woman is exposed to secondhand smoke, the nicotine she ingests is passed on to her unborn baby.

Women who smoke or are exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy:

• have a higher rate of miscarriages and stillbirths
• have an increased risk of low birth weight infants
• have children born with decreased lung function
• have children with greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

Children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to experience increased frequency of:

• asthma, colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, and other lung diseases
• middle ear infections
• sinus infections

Enough cannot be said about dangers of smoking. If your parents refuse to stop smoking in your presence, the best way out for you may be to move out. There is a lot of ways in which you can detoxify the chemicals that you are exposed to but you need to eliminate the exposure route as well.

Exposure to cigarette smoke depletes the body of Vitamin C so supplementing it is very important. Detoxifying liver by improving efficiency of liver detox pathways will also help you remove some of the toxin and known carcinogens. I often recommend using Milk Thistly extracts for the liver and combining it with high doses of N-Acetyl cystein and MSM for extra detox. What ever you take avoid taking beta carotene by itself. Some research has shown that when a patient is exposed to cigarette smoke, beta carotene can make those carcinogens more toxic by way of its high anti-oxidant action. Mixed caratenoids are always a better way to go.

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Dr. Elena Krasnov is a registered Naturopathic Doctor and Clinic Director of the Toronto Naturopathic Clinic. Submit your questions online at 24hrs.ca

Co-written by Miranda Tallon-Malisani Holistic Nutritionist