Second-hand smoke is tobacco smoke that affects a non-smoker. Second-hand smoke can come directly from a cigarette or other lit tobacco; it may also be exhaled by a person smoking.
Second-hand smoke is sometimes referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), involuntary smoking, or passive smoking.
Second-hand smoke contains the same cancer-causing and lung-damaging chemicals that affect smokers. Repeated exposure to second-hand smoke over many years can cause damage to a non-smoker's lungs that is similar to that of a smoker's.
Second-hand smoke is the most important risk factor for cancer among non-smokers, far greater than other known cancer-causing substances. Second-hand smoke is most harmful to:
The spouse and any child of a person who smokes, or anyone who lives with someone who smokes.
A developing fetus, if the pregnant woman smokes.
People who spend most of their time in confined areas that are filled with tobacco smoke.
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine & Brian O'Brien, MD, FRCPC - Internal Medicine & Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine & John R. Hughes, MD - Addiction Psychiatry & Michael F. Bierer, MD - Internal Medicine