Poisonous lead, carcinogenic formaldehyde, radioactive polonium……
These words have been heard more or less by everyone, and they are afraid to avoid them.
However, these harmful substances exist in one thing at the same time, and continuously enter our bodies and children’s bodies every day, which is-
Secondhand smoke
Secondhand Smoke Leaves 200 Million Children Nowhere to Escape
Second-hand smoke, also known as tobacco smoke pollution, belongs to second-hand smoke both from smokers and from cigarette burning.
It exists in almost every inch of our life and endangers our children.
- When I walked into the elevator with my child in my arms, I smelled like a choking smell. I took the child to the restaurant and lit the lighter on the side table.
Even the family is doomed.
- Grandpa held her baby in one hand and smoked in the other. Relatives visited her and started smoking during the holidays. The smoke in the room was even more comparable to [fairyland on earth]
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, with more than 300 million smokers and nearly 200 million children forced to suffer from toxic secondhand smoke.
Our children, there is nowhere to run.
Every time when talking about the harm of second-hand smoke, some people always think:
Isn’t it just a cigarette or two? It doesn’t do much harm, does it?
Come on, let’s see if there is what in secondhand smoke?
More than 7000 chemicals
More than 250 poisons
At least 70 carcinogens
Class I carcinogens officially sealed by the World Health Organization’s Cancer Research Institute (IRAC)! A real [child killer]!
Second-hand smoke is more harmful to children’s health than you think.
Children are developing. Under the same concentration of second-hand smoke, they are far more harmed than adults, especially children under one year old.
We can’t help running away when we smell smoke, but children are basically held in our arms by adults.
This also means that children will be exposed to higher doses of secondhand smoke more closely.
It has almost become a consensus that smokers are more likely to suffer from lung cancer, bronchitis, cardiovascular diseases, etc.
Second-hand smoke is no less harmful to children than first-hand smoke.
1. Causing respiratory symptoms and diseases
Children’s bronchi are relatively straight, and harmful substances in second-hand smoke can enter alveoli through respiratory tract and accumulate gradually.
A survey published in a top pediatric journal shows that after three years of nationwide smoking ban in Britain, the hospitalization rate of children with asthma has dropped by 8.9%, a remarkable figure.
2. Causing otitis media, hearing loss and other ear diseases
Secondhand smoke will make the mucus in the middle ear of children more. Once effusion is formed, otitis media will easily be caused.
How painful is otitis media? Some people in Zhihu replied like this:
Feel like the inside of your ear is torn.
Feel a chopstick poking in your ear
It hurts more than my big aunt when she vomits.
Like a needle, the pain is better than death…….
The following netizen’s answer makes people subconsciously want to cover their ears.
Photo Source: Zhihu @ 20 Koubei
Can you imagine this kind of pain happening to children?
What is more serious is that secondhand smoke can cause hearing damage, hearing loss and even permanent deafness.
3. Causing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
In previous articles by Clove Mother, we often said: Don’t smoke in the room where the child sleeps.
Data show that about 10% of sudden infant deaths are caused by secondhand smoke.
Children usually leave us silently in sleep.
Photo Source: Clove Mother
Those who smoke in front of their children and think that one or two cigarettes are harmless can still smoke and say these words with ease after knowing these facts?
Regardless of the dose, talking about toxicity is hooliganism. This sentence does not work in front of second-hand smoke.
Because there is no safe level of second-hand smoke exposure!
In other words, even short-term inhalation of secondhand smoke will bring irreversible damage to children.
No matter ventilation or exhaust, or putting green plants to take drugs, it is useless. The only way is to completely ban smoking.
Is it okay if you don’t smoke in front of the children? Wrong!
Seeing this, some people may say: Then I should not smoke in front of the children, and then enter the house after smoking outside, or there will be no ventilation.
Second-hand smoke is gone, but third-hand smoke is still there.
Experiments have proved that harmful substances in the smoke will remain in the smoking place for up to 6 months!
These substances will also fall on smokers’ fingers, hair, clothes and skin, and attach to sofas, floors, furniture and even walls at home.
When the child’s hand touches these objects and then puts it into his mouth defenselessly, the silent injury is staged.
These harmful substances will continue to penetrate into children’s respiratory tract, ears and even skin, increasing the risks of children’s respiratory diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, otitis media and cancer.
Not long ago, a latest scientific study on third-hand smoke proved that harmful substances in third-hand smoke can induce double-strand breaks of cell DNA and make cells proliferate to form tumors.
A British documentary < > also provides a real case.
Alex, 6, suffered from rubber ears at an early age, a disease that clogs the ear canal and affects hearing. For this reason, he has been to the hospital more than once.
Alex’s rubber ears were caused by his father’s years of smoking.
In my father’s opinion, I went outside to smoke and entered the house. How did Alex get sick?
In fact, it was the third-hand smoke substance left on the father that caused the child to get sick.
In China, many children are also victims of second-hand smoke and third-hand smoke.
Teacher Yan Hu, a professional popular science author and pediatrician of Clove Mother, once treated a child.
The little girl coughed for nearly half a year, only to find out later that the culprit might be Grandpa’s third-hand cigarette.
Although Grandpa smoked outside, his third-hand cigarettes still inevitably affected the children.
Although smoking is a personal freedom and hobby, it is really unfair to those who do not smoke.
In 2004, children accounted for 28% of the 603,000 people who died of second-hand smoke worldwide. Roughly speaking, there were about 170,000!
170,000 little lives, who did not smoke but died of smokers’ smoke, left forever and forever before they had a good feeling of the beautiful world.
If someone in your family smokes, please pass this article on to them.
For your own sake, for the sake of your children, for the sake of your children’s tomorrow, give up smoking.