Secondhand smoke poses a major health risk, and thousands and thousands of Americans are unknowingly exposed to toxic smoke frequently, a latest study suggests.
The study, published within the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, found that 56 million American adults were incessantly exposed to toxic secondhand smoke, a 3rd of whom could also be entirely unaware of their exposure.
Secondhand smoke for non-smokers is classed as “involuntary smoking” or “passive smoking,” in accordance with the American Cancer Society, clarifying that those people breathe in nicotine and toxic chemicals in the identical manner as smokers.
Researchers from the University of Florida checked out a nationally representative survey of greater than 13,000 US adults from 2013 to 2020, mined from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Examination Survey.
“It could possibly be the case that for low-level exposure, perhaps you don’t notice it. You’re in a public setting, and perhaps you’re not even aware someone is using tobacco around you. Perhaps it’s so minor you forgot,” Jennifer LeLaurin, assistant professor of health outcomes and biomedical informatics at UF, said in a media release.
“There’s also the chance that a few of the respondents were aware of some secondhand smoke exposure but selected to not report it as a result of the stigma,” Lelaurin, senior writer of the study, said.
The UF Health researchers were searching for any traces of cotinine, a chemical that forms after nicotine enters the body, in participants’ blood as a biomarker for exposure to tobacco from smoke.
They identified the consequences of nicotine within the blood of 51% of participants — but of this group, 67.6% claimed they’d not been exposed to vapes or cigarettes.
Findings proved that there’s a previously unreported and huge gap in knowledge about secondhand smoke.
All demographics of participants underreported their smoke exposure, though black people had the very best rates of each exposure and underreporting.
“We predict this report will inform targeted interventions for at-risk groups,” Wang, who’s pursuing her doctorate in health services research, said.
While it’s unclear why the underexposure rates were so high, cotinine levels are susceptible and even small amounts might be detected.
Though no amount is protected.
“There isn’t any protected level of secondhand smoke exposure, and long-term exposure can increase the danger of many chronic conditions, resembling coronary heart disease, respiratory disease, and cancers,” Ruixuan (Roxanne) Wang, a doctoral candidate within the College of Public Health and Health Professions at UF, said.
‘We would like people to concentrate on their exposure so that they can take protective actions,” Wang, lead writer of the study, added.
