Arun Gowda

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Active v/s Passive smoking ..which is more harmful?

Last night we had debate in our room which won by us.. The debate was about active smoking and passive smoking.
You don't need to smoke to be at risk for developing lung cancer from tobacco smoke. The smoke from someone else's cigarette, cigar or pipe has just as much potential to affect your health in adverse ways
The dangerous difference between mainstream and sidestream smoke:
Mainstream smoke is what a smoker draws through the cigarette, cigar or pipe when they smoke. In the case of cigarettes, the smoker inhales smoke that has passed through a filter, which is intended to remove some of the tar and nicotine from each drag of smoke. When a smoker exhales, a non-smoker is exposed to mainstream smoke that has already passed through the smoker's lungs.
Sidestream smoke makes up most of the smoke inhaled by non-smokers ( 85% of smoke produced by smoking a cigarette is sidestream ). Sidestream smoke comes from the burning end of the cigarette, and because a lot of this combustion is at a lower temperature than mainstream smoke, more of the carcinogenic chemicals are released into the air. The particles of smoke that make up sidestream smoke are smaller than those of mainstream, and their tiny size allows them to stay airborne longer and go deeper into lungs. In addition to this, sidestream smoke does not have the slight benefit derived from the cigarette's filter.

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    Lejan .

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    Sep 6 2013: Active smoking is more harmful, as the active smoker is as well a 'passive' smoker and therefore endangered additionally by its 'active' smoking, to which an only passive smoker is not exposed to.

    Just simple logic and no statement that passive smoking isn't dangerous. It is and should be reduced or avoided.
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      . .

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      Sep 6 2013: Sincere thanks for not smoking. Both active and passive smoking.,,,,,..are harmful.
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    Sep 5 2013: This would appear to be a question of fact. Have you sought research on this subject?

    The World Health Organization reports that a non-smoker living with a smoker has 1/3 of the smoker's health risk.

    In the same article, it appears that there are 5.1 million deaths per year attributed to active smoking and 600,000 to passive smoking.
  • Sep 6 2013: active smoke kills 1 person, passive can kill a crowd - hence passive is more harmful
  • Sep 6 2013: Everybody look up German policy on smoking, 1933-1945.