Smoking and poor dietary choices are known to increase the risk of cardiac disease. According to “Secondhand Smoke: Avoid Dangers in the Air You Breathe” from Mayo Clinic, more than 250 toxic chemicals are in secondhand tobacco smoke, including 50 carcinogens, the result of which can be deadly.

According to “CDC Fact Sheet-Ventilation Does Not Effectively Protect Nonsmokers from Secondhand Smoke” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lung cancer is the leading reason of cancer death in the U.S. and it kills more women than breast cancer. As the lungs decay, making each breath more difficult than the last.

A known human carcinogen, secondhand smoke is responsible for 3,400 lung cancer deaths.

A teenage waitress - a student working two jobs - died in February from an asthma attack caused by secondhand smoke in the establishment where she was working because the patrons had the right to feed their addiction in public.

We’ve heard it time and again: pain in the arm, chest pressure, neck or jaw, shortness of breath and the sweating. Physicians fight to restore blood flow to the heart as cardiac muscle is dying and heart function is being irreplaceably lost. According to the CDC, secondhand smoke causes blood platelets to become stickier, decreasing the reserve blood flow velocity to the heart, damaging blood vessels’ lining, and reducing heart rate variability – ultimately leading to heart attack.

According to the CDC, more than 22,000 nonsmokers die each year from heart disease - not from poor dietary choices. Children are considered precious responsibilities whose formative years, mentally, physically and spiritually, have been entrusted to their families. Naturally, they are more vulnerable as they grow, and for this reason we take many precautions to keep them safe and healthy - vitamins, car seats, healthy meals for growing bodies. Chemicals in secondhand smoke appear to interfere with the brain’s regulation of infants’ breathing. This is supported by the fact that infants who die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) have higher levels of nicotine and cotinine (a metabolite of nicotine). Secondhand smoke can cause asthma in unaffected children, and increases the severity and frequency of attacks in those already afflicted.

According to “Secondhand Smoke and Your Family” from lungUSA.org, secondhand smoke is also responsible for 150,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia annually in children less than 18 months. Thousands of innocent children suffer each year.