| Each year in the United States, about 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer from breathing secondhand smoke (Lightin' Up, 66). Secondhand smoke causes up to 2,700 cases of sudden infant death syndrome, 62,000 deaths from heart disease and 26,000 new cases of asthma in kids (Raeburn, 38). In the 1997 study by the California Environmental Protection Agency, it concluded that secondhand smoke not only caused lung cancer in adults, respiratory problems in children, sudden infant death syndrome, and heart disease, it also causes low birth weight, middle ear infections, and nasual sinus cancer (Lightin' Up, 62). High enough doses of secondhand smoke can even interfere with a person's ability to breath. In the Journal of the American Medical Associations, researchers from the university of California at SanFrancisco reported that concentrated doses of secondhand smoke irritates the eyes, nose, and throat, and diminish lung capacity, so that a person must take shallower breaths more often just to get the same amount of oxygen (Licking, 81). |
