Passive smoking poses an imminent danger to children’s health, as it increases their risk of developing serious diseases, including cancer. This applies to both tobacco smoking and e-cigarettes.
The Federal Center for Health Awareness in Germany explained that passive smoking raises the risk of many serious diseases in children, such as middle ear infections, asthma, pneumonia, and bronchitis.
Children of smoking parents also have an increased risk of developing cancer, even if they do not smoke a cigarette in their entire lives later, according to the results of an evaluation conducted by the German Cancer Research Center.
The center explained that children breathe more than adults, and this is one of the reasons why passive smoking is particularly harmful to children, especially infants and young children, as with a higher respiratory rate, more harmful substances resulting from tobacco smoke can reach the lungs.
In addition, children’s respiratory and detoxification systems are not yet fully developed, so a child in a smoke-filled room inhales as many pollutants per hour as if he were smoking a cigarette himself.
Cold tobacco smoke
It is best not to smoke indoors at all, even if children are not home at the time of smoking, since so-called “cold tobacco smoke” can also pose a health risk.
The center explained that cold tobacco smoke is fine particles of tobacco smoke deposited on furniture, carpets, wallpaper, or clothes, noting that nicotine and combustion products resulting from smoke can interact with other substances in the environment and form new, sometimes carcinogenic, substances. These particles can be moved by air currents and thus inhaled.
Electronic cigarettes
Regarding electronic cigarettes, Professor Hans-Jürgen Nettwicz said that electronic cigarettes do not emit all the harmful substances found in tobacco smoke, but this does not mean that electronic cigarettes are harmless, neither for the person who smokes himself nor for children who inhale the room air, which is mixed with steam.
Neintevich, a member of the expert committee of the Professional Association of Pediatricians and Adolescents in Germany, explained that there are a number of pollutants present in the steam, such as “formaldehyde” and “acetaldehyde,” which are classified as carcinogenic substances.
Even if the concentration of these pollutants in e-cigarette vapor is fairly low, this does not mean that they are harmless, since there is no amount of carcinogenic substances that are considered harmless.
The best way to protect children from the dangers of passive smoking is to never smoke, whether tobacco or electronic cigarettes, at home, in the car, or in any places where children are present.