Second hand smoke has hundreds of known carcinogens. Carcinogens that occur in second-hand smoke include benzene, butadiene, benzo, methylnitrosamino, butanone and many others Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. Carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and methyl isocyanate are among these poisons. Benzo{a}pyrene and NNK cause lung cancer, nitrosamines may lead to lung cancer, respiratory system and other cancers.

Secondhand smoke also increases the risk of stroke and heart disease. Exposure to tobacco smoke affects everybody. If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke as a teenager whose parents are both nonsmokers. Secondhand smoke causes asthma and breathing problems. Children are more vulnerable than any other age group because they are still growing and developing. In children it is the major cause of respiratory infections and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Non-smokers don’t have problems with smokers as persons, they just don’t want to inhale all the smoke from the air. Non-smokers are really not the type of people who want to keep smokers from smoking. The only thing they consider bothering is inhaling cigarette smoke involuntarily.