How to Protect Family Health from Smoke
Are you smoking? You may not realize it but if ever you choose to quit smoking forever, you will be able to protect the people you really care about. Smoking is dangerous not only for you but also for the people around you. Thinking about quitting the habit can make you and the people you love happier and also healthier.
How Smoking Affect Others
Smoking can affect other people through secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of the smoke coming from your cigarette and the smoke that you breathe out during smoking. When the secondhand smoke is breathed in, it is dangerous. There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke as it contains over 7,000 harmful chemicals. Only 250 of these chemicals are known and can damage the health of your family.
Secondhand smoke can stay for many hours after somebody smokes. Even breathing it for a short span of time can damage your body. When inhaled many times, secondhand smoke can cause serious health illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.
How Secondhand Smoke Harms the Body
- Heart disease. Breathing the secondhand smoke can increase the chance of having heart attacks.
- Cancer. Secondhand smoke has thousands of harmful chemicals and 70 of these are known to cause cancer. Most of the cases of patients with lung cancer are due to secondhand smoke.
- Problems with Breathing. Inhaling secondhand smoke can cause wheezing, shortness of breath, phlegm and coughing.
Secondhand smoke is very dangerous for babies, children and pregnant women. The effects of secondhand smoke are:
- Ear infections. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke have higher chances to acquire ear infections.
- Weaker lungs. Children and babies who inhale secondhand smoke have weaker lungs. They also have higher risks of acquiring different health problems.
- Small babies. Mothers who are breathing secondhand smoke during pregnancy are likely to have smaller babies. The babies are weak and have higher chances of getting serious diseases.
- Severe asthma. Children who already have asthma can experience severe asthma attacks when exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Breathing problems. Children whose parents smoke have higher chances to get pneumonia and bronchitis. They can experience many lung problems such as too much phlegm, coughing, wheezing and breathing problems.
- SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Babies whose mothers are smoking during pregnancy have higher chances to die due to SIDS.
In order to protect your family from the dangers of smoke or secondhand smoke, it is important to ban smoking inside your home. If you are living in a crowded place or condominium or apartments, make sure that the building has “No Smoking” area rule.
Protect Loved Ones from Smoke/ Secondhand Smoke
There are many things that you can do to protect your family from the dangerous effects of smoke and secondhand smoke. If you are a smoker, the best thing that you can do is to quit smoking as soon as possible. This way, you can be healthy and at the same time, you are getting rid of the exposure of your family to secondhand smoke.
It is also important to make sure that your house is smoke-free. You can use an air purifier to keep the air clean indoors. Children breathe more air at home than in other places so it is essential that they are breathing clean air. Set a rule such as “Smoke-free rules” or “No Smoking” in your home, garden, garage and car. The effects of these rules can:
- Make you quit smoking and live healthy.
- Decrease the amount of secondhand smoke that your loved ones breathe in.
- Lower the chances of your children to become a smoker.
Here are some rules to protect your family from secondhand smoke:
- Do not let other people to smoke inside your house or inside your car. If you are a smoker, make sure that you maintain smoke-free environment for your family. However, the best thing that you can do for you and your family is to quit the habit.
- Make sure that people who will look after your children (babysitters, nannies, and nursery) are not smoking.
- When going to restaurants, make sure that it is smoke-free.
- Avoid going to public areas that allow smoking.
- Most importantly, do not forget to remind your children to stay away from secondhand smoke.