How Second Hand Smoke Can Affect the Heart

Heart disease mortality - an estimated 35,000 to 62,000 deaths are caused from heart disease in people who are not current smokers, but who are exposed to ETS

* Acute and chronic coronary heart disease
* Passive smoking has been linked to the narrowing of the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain
* Exposure to second hand smoke hastens hardening of the arteries, a condition known as artherosclerosis
* Continual exposure to ETS has been shown to nearly double the chance of heart attack

Second Hand Smoke - Worse Than We Thought

Second hand smoke is serious business, and should be a concern for anyone who breathes it in. Non-smokers inhaling second hand smoke share some of the health risks smokers face. But smokers do face the worst of it - the risks of smoking are compounded by breathing the smoke in for a second time.

Don’t underestimate the dangers of ETS. While second hand smoke may not kill as many people as smoking does, it is toxic and claims thousands of lives every year around the world.

References:
Mayo Clinic
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The National Cancer Institute (NCI)
The American Heart Association

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