#second-hand smoke

[vintagenews]

Source and details.

[magdalenafemme]

"calloused fingers / i hold tight, hold tight / to a cigarette i've never smoked it's / gonna kill me anyway"

 - second-hand smoke by l.g

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Studies report new risks to teens from secondhand smoke

Teens exposed to secondhand smoke are more vulnerable to getting sick, one study finds. Another suggests that later, in adulthood, these individuals may be at risk for premature death from lung disease.

No surprise: Smoking is bad for your health. But even people who never touch a cigarette can be harmed by cigarette smoke. They merely have to inhale the airborne pollutants exhaled by a smoker. That so-called secondhand smoke can linger in the air for days. Teens who can’t avoid breathing it in may develop coughing and trouble breathing. But even those who don’t may still suffer, a new study finds. And that’s not the worst of it. Another study found that in teens exposed to that smoke for years, far more serious lung disease may develop.

Some 9.6 million U.S. teens and preteens are exposed to secondhand smoke, which can aggravate asthma. That’s a lung disease that can make it hard to breathe. Most secondhand-smoke studies focus on teens with asthma. But Ashley Merianos, a tobacco researcher at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, wondered if this pollution might hurt other kids, too. To find out, her team decided to look at overall sickness rates in these kids. They also tracked their school attendance rates.

The researchers used data from a national survey known as PATH. (It stands for Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health.) Every year since 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has surveyed people 12 and up about the effects of tobacco on their health. Its findings help guide government policies to protect public health.

Merianos’ team focused on PATH data from 2014 and 2015 for kids ages 12 to 17. That covered 7,389 adolescents. Each kid had been asked if they lived with someone who smoked. They also were asked how much time they were exposed to smoke in a typical week.

Other questions asked whether they generally felt short of breath, or did they have a dry cough at night. Each kid reported whether they visited the emergency room that year, and if so, how often. Finally, each participant estimated how often they missed school over the past year for medical reasons.

Explainer: The nico-teen brain

Many things affect our health. So linking effects to particular causes is not easy. Yet researchers must try to account for this when designing a study. Here, Merianos’ team took one step by excluding any teens with asthma. They also excluded those who had smoked cigarettes within 30 days of taking the survey. That helped the researchers home in on teens who had been generally been healthy.

Some of these kids reported no regular exposure to secondhand smoke. And compared to them, those who lived with smokers or encountered secondhand smoke at least an hour each week were more likely to report health issues. During or after exercise, for instance, they were more likely to suffer from shortness of breath and wheezing. They also reported more days off sick from school.

The team published its findings in the August 2018 Pediatrics.

[magdalenafemme]

"so blonde fades into / ash mourning / mount st helens / i wish i could have / a rage like that"

 - second-hand smoke by l.g

[magdalenafemme]

"whispers unbidden / suddenly, suddenly / how smoke fills / the caverns of your lungs / don't you want / to be a bad thing?"

-second-hand smoke by l.g

[missccellaneous]

[missccellaneous]

[epochhistorymagazine]

Liverpool’s Eighteenth-Century Second-Hand Smoke Problem

Liverpool’s Eighteenth-Century Second-Hand Smoke Problem

Dabeoc Stanley | Lancaster University If you stepped into Liverpool in the mid-1780s you would encounter an animated, bustling, overwhelming

'By 1784, Liverpool was an awesome and awful place. It had grown from a modest fishing community in 1700 to the ‘second city of the British empire' ... If you were to walk Liverpool’s streets in 1784, however, you would struggle to see this material wealth, indeed you would probably be struggling to breathe.' - Dabeoc Stanley