Second Hand Smoke the Legal Poison
Image a world where is legal to haphazardly poison your fellow man. ... The poison is secondhand smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. Secondhand smoke, sometimes referred to as passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke, contains more than three thousand toxic chemicals including sixty carcinogenic, cancer causing, compounds. Nicotine, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and even trace amounts of arsenic can be found in cigarette smoke. Just like smokers, nonsmokers who inhale the smoke from cigarettes are susceptible to the health risks associated with these toxins. (1) In 1986, the United States Surgeon General and the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council published two separate reports that outlined some of the heath risks associated with secondhand smoke. The reports concluded that prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke can cause heart disease, lung and cervical cancer, and even cystic fibrosis in nonsmokers. Exposure to secondhand smoke can also worsen existing symptoms for people with asthma, chronic bronchitis, and allergies. (1) In 1992, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) validated the findings of these reports when it conducted a separate study on the health effects of secondhand smoke.