Chennai: Twelve-year-old Aakansha S has had asthma since she was five and is yet to find a relief from the pain. Her parents were chain smokers until Aakansha's ill health forced them to stop.
The constant breathing in of second hand smoke within the four walls of their Anna Nagar house resulted in the child developing an asthma attack at the age of five.
Tobacco consumption kills approximately six million people globally each year, of which, five million are smokers and one million passive smokers, said Dr Raju Titus Chacko, professor and head, Medical Oncology, Christian Medical College, Vellore.
Breathing second hand smoke interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of a heart attack, said cardiologist Dr K. Madhav.
"Even brief exposure to second hand smoke can damage the lining of blood vessels and cause your blood platelets to become stickier. These changes can cause a deadly heart attack. Those who already have heart disease are at a higher risk of suffering adverse effects from breathing second hand smoke and should therefore take special precautions to avoid even brief exposure," he said.
It has been found that smoking during pregnancy results in more than 1,000 infant deaths annually. "It increases the risk of SIDS, which is the leading cause of death in otherwise healthy infants.
Infants, who die from SIDS, have higher concentrations of nicotine in their lungs and higher levels of cotinine (a biological marker for second hand smoke exposure) than infants who die from other causes," said pulmonologist Dr Murugan.
