The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made a shocking revelation in its latest report that showed even though fewer Americans are engaged in smoking habit due to more stringent smoke-free laws, a massive 58 million nonsmokers still are exposed to secondhand smoke.
The federal health officials on Tuesday said that a large number of people are facing the brunt of the cigarette smoking habit among smokers as they are exposed to dangerous tobacco smoke due to secondhand smoking.
A report showed that the secondhand smoke exposure dropped by half between two periods 1999-2000 and 2011-12. But unfortunately this decline in rates failed to save the nonsmokers from facing the ill-effects of passive smoking.
“Secondhand smoke can kill. Too many Americans, particularly children, are still exposed to secondhand smoke,” said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden while addressing a press conference on Tuesday.
As per the CDC estimates, 40 percent of children aged between 3 and 11 are exposed to secondhand smoke. The figure is at a very alarming level for black children as the report shows 70 percent of them getting exposed to it.
Citing the US Surgeon General, Frieden said, “There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals including roughly 70 that can cause cancer.”
According to official figures, the secondhand smoke kills over 41,000 Americans each year after causing them serious ailments like heart-related diseases and lung cancer, while it results into 400 deaths from SIDS. The health officials said that all the deaths from second smoke related deaths are preventable.
Passive smoke causes serious health issues among infants and children such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), asthma attacks, respiratory infections and ear infections. In adults, secondhand smoke causes health ailments like heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.
The findings of study were detailed in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on February 3.
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