In this article I want to talk about the harmful effects of not only the mainstream smoke that a smoker takes in while enjoying his cigarette, but the adverse effects that second hand smoke has on someone standing nearby. Most smokers don't take into consideration what is happening while exposing others to second hand smoke, or in alot of cases they just havent been informed on the risks.

The scientists and doctors that make up the American Lung Society have concluded that second hand smoke is actually more hazardous to others than the mainstream smoke that the smoker him/herself inhales. Think about it like this; The mainstream smoke inhaled by the smoker (Unless they are smoking filterless cigarettes) is pulled from the end of the cigarette where it is lit, through a filter. The filter removes a percentage of the carcinogens and poisons that the burning tobacco produces. The lit end on the other hand is pure unfiltered tobacco smoke with all of the poisons still present. This is what is called second hand smoke.

Tobacco smoke produces over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or at least suspected of causing cancer. Each year in the United States, second hand smoke is claimed to be responsible for an estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease in non-smokers who live or work around smokers; about 4,600 deaths from lung cancer in non-smokers who live or work around smokers; more than 750,000 middle ear infections in children and infants whose parents or other family members in the household smoke, and 50,000 to 300,000 lung infections (Pneumonia, Bronchitis) in babies under the age of 18 months old, which a whopping 7,500 - 15,000 of those result in hospitalizations. Second hand smoke also increases the number of and severity of asthma attacks in a high percentage of children with asthma.

In the year 2006, the Surgeon General's Report concluded that second hand smoke causes premature death in children and adults regardless of the fact that they do not smoke and it increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in infants by a large margin. Smoking by parents causes the lung growth in children to slow down which causes breathing problems in the children. Scientific evidence shows that there are no safe levels to being exposed to second hand smoke.

The information in this article needs to be spread throughout not only the United States, but the world. Non smokers shouldn't have to pay for the smokers' habit with their lives and health. Smokers need to know what repercussions can come from what they introduce into the air while smoking around others. Up until now, I have made mention only of the health risks to non smokers, but the smoker is exposed to second hand smoke as well as mainstream, so there is even more of a risk to the smoker, but it is his or her choice to smoke, not the non smoker's.

If a smoker chooses not to want to quit, maybe because he or she just can't break the habit that their brain needs, the stimulation that the nicotine provides, there are safer methods of nicotine intake on the market today, And I'm not talking about chewing tobacco, because that is risky as well, I'm talking about the electronic cigarette.

There are advertisers out there that talk about the fact that you can smoke anywhere, but that's not important. The most important attribute of an electronic cigarette is the fact that it does not emit a second hand smoke, in fact, what is inhaled is not smoke at all, it is vapor. This makes the electronic cigarette the safer alternative to smoking conventional cigarettes anyday in my book. For more information on electronic cigarettes, visit an electronic cigarette review site and find out more about them.