You may not smoke . You may even avoid smoking areas at restaurants and airports, insist that nobody smokes inside your home. But what happens when the person sitting next to you lights a cigarette? That familiar smell drifting across a balcony, into a car, through a window or across a tea stall is not ‘just smoke’. You are breathing in second-hand smoke – a mixture of smoke from the burning cigarette , the smoke exhaled by the smoker.
The practical answer is not to panic over every whiff of smoke, but to reduce exposure wherever possible. Keep homes and cars completely smoke-free, move away from active smoking, and avoid assuming that an open window or designated smoking corner makes exposure harmless. Passive smoking should no longer be regarded as a habit of others. It is an exposure to environmental health hazards for those who have chosen not to smoke. It includes reducing preventable exposure to carcinogens.
Because when someone else lights a cigarette, you should not have to light one too to pay the health price. Because cancer prevention involves more than just detection and treatment, this is particularly relevant for oncology.
“Yes- particularly when exposure is frequent or prolonged,” said Dr Rajbhog.
