When most people choose not to smoke, they feel that they are making a conscious decision to not poison their body with over 4,000 chemicals found in cigarettes. What they may not know is that although they are not directly inhaling smoke from a cigarette of their own, they could possibly be inhaling the smoke from the cigarette of a friend that is standing right next to them.

Secondhand smoke can cause serious health problems in both adults and children. This is mainly due to the fact that secondhand smoke contains at least 60 carcinogens. According to the American Lung Association, secondhand smoke can be classified as the smoke from someone else’s cigarette, pipe, or cigar. Secondhand smoke comes from two sources: mainstream and sidestream smoke. Mainstream smoke is what the smoker inhales directly into their body. Nonsmokers are exposed to this smoke when smokers exhale. Sidestream smoke is the smoke that is emitted from the burning end of a lit cigarette, pipe, or cigar. Both are equally as dangerous to a nonsmoker. According to the Committee on Environmental Hazards, because secondhand smoke burns at a lower temperature than inhaled smoke, it contains two times more tar and five times more carbon monoxide.

What makes secondhand smoke so hazardous to nonsmokers is that they absorb nicotine and other components from a lit cigarette, pipe or cigar just as smokers do. Because of this, secondhand smoke can cause eye irritation, headache, cough and sore throat, increased heart rate and blood pressure, dizziness, and nausea.

Secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths, 35,000-62,000 cardiovascular disease deaths, and 2,300 deaths from SIDS a year in nonsmokers. Children, especially in their first two years of life, are particularly susceptible to diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and respiratory disease as a result of secondhand smoke.

Louisiana, along with many cities, states and countries, has already joined in the fight against secondhand smoke by becoming smoke-free. But here are a few extra ways that you can protect yourself from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke:

• Ask smokers to smoke outside of the home

• Distance yourself from those who are smoking around you

• Help a loved one or a friend quit smoking