Are you a smoker?
Did you know you could be breaking the heart of your loved and people around you?
- Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and can cause coronary heart disease and stroke. Further, the smoke interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems, increasing the risk of having a heart attack.
- Even brief exposure to second-hand smoke can damage the lining of blood vessels and cause blood platelets to become stickier. These changes can cause a deadly heart attack.
- People who already have heart disease are at especially high risk of suffering adverse effects from breathing second-hand smoke and should take special precautions to avoid even brief exposures.
- Non-smokers who breathe second-hand smoke have between a 25–30 percent increase in the risk of developing a CVD.
- Each year, exposure to second-hand smoke kills 600,000 people: 28 percent of them are children.
- Of all adult deaths caused by second-hand smoke, more than 80 percent are from CVD.
- Frequent exposure to tobacco smoke, whether in the workplace or home, has been found to nearly double the risk of having a heart attack.
Sources:
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World Health Organisation
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American Heart Association
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British Heart Association
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K J Somaiya Hospital Cardiac Centre