World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on 31 May and below is an excerpt from an article contributed by Curie Oncology’s Dr.Toh Chee Keong, a medical oncologist who sub-specialises in thoracic oncology including lung cancers and thymic cancers, genitourinary oncology including prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular cancers, as well as head and neck cancers.
If you are a smoker or know of a loved one who wants to quit smoking, you can call Health Promotion Board Quitline on 1800-438-2000. You may also contact Medicus’ patient case manager for more information on smoking related conditions and treatments.
How does smoking affect your family and other people?
Smokers often assume no harm is done to their families or others if they do not light up in front of non-smokers. Secondhand smoke is a combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) exposes non-smoker even if the smoker does not light up in not light up in front of non-smokers, or if they ventilate the enclosed space they are lighting up in.
After being exposed to secondhand smoke over an extended period of time, adults, after long term exposure to ETS, they have higher chance of developing lung cancer, heart diseases, stroke and diabetes mellitus. Children have increased chance of getting asthma and lung infection and when they grow up, have higher risk of getting lung cancer and heart disease. In addition, if your wife is a smoker or exposed to ETS, both your spouse and baby are put at higher health risks.
Is it okay if I smoke when my wife or children are not around?
Unless you want to repaint the house, and replace the carpets and furniture every time you smoke, it is better not to light the cigarette at all. Smoking will leave remnants of nicotine and other toxic substances on surfaces of clothes and furniture, and household dust. These poisonous substances, known as thirdhand smoke, can remain for a long time in the house which is why you shouldn’t light up at all.
People are exposed to thirdhand smoke through contact with the contaminated surfaces or inhalation of the dust particles suspended in the home environment. This results in absorption of the toxins without knowing it. So it is not alright to smoke when no one is at home because thirdhand smoke can be harmful too.
Think twice or even thrice before you light the cigarette. Quitting smoking can benefit everyone around you as well as yourself, of course!
