Audio News | RWJUH Urges Smokers and Non-Smokers to Be Aware of the Dangers of Secondhand Smoke

MP3 File

New Brunswick - With approximately 3,000 non-smokers in America dying each year from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is urging both smokers and non-smokers to be aware of the danger.

“Non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke take in more than 4,000 harmful toxins the same way that smokers do,” said John E. Langenfeld, MD, chief of general thoracic surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. “Every time they are around secondhand smoke their health is being put at risk.”

In addition to lung cancer, secondhand smoke, defined as smoke from a cigarette, cigar, pipe or smoker’s exhale, can cause nasal sinus cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems in adults, and pneumonia, bronchitis and severe asthma attacks in children. It also contributes to low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Studies have shown that the more people are exposed to secondhand smoke, the greater their risk for developing health problems.

“Secondhand smoke is a major preventable health hazard in our society,” said Michael Steinberg, MD, MPH, clinical medical director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at UMDNJ-School of Public Health and an attending physician at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. “Exposure to secondhand smoke is often involuntary and frequently unavoidable. Even low levels of exposure can impact a person’s health.”

There are certain actions people can take to reduce their contact with secondhand smoke. Establish a smoke-free environment inside the home and car. This will protect children and other family members from regularly inhaling secondhand smoke.

Smokers should go outside when they want to smoke, and no one should be smoking around children.

“Of course the best solution to avoid secondhand smoke exposure is for smokers to quit,” noted Dr. Steinberg.

Additional information about lung cancer and other respiratory disorders is available at www.rwjuh.edu .

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, one of the nation’s leading academic health centers, is the principal hospital for UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Health System & Network. For more information, please call the hospital’s main phone number at 732-828-3000, the RWJUH Physician Referral Line at 888-44-RWJUH or visit www.rwjuh.edu .

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Contact: Kristen Walsh, RWJUH (732) 937-8519