February 15, 2007
Secondhand smoke exposure has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease. Secondhand smoke is estimated to cause from 22,700 to 69,600 premature deaths from heart disease each year in the United States among nonsmokers.
Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25–30 percent. Breathing secondhand smoke can have immediate adverse effects on your blood and blood vessels, potentially increasing the risk of a heart attack.
• Breathing secondhand smoke interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of a heart attack.
• For some of these negative effects, the immediate impact of even short exposures to secondhand smoke appears to be almost as large as that observed in active smokers.
• Even a short time in a smoky room can cause your blood platelets to become stickier.
• Even brief secondhand smoke exposure can damage the lining of blood vessels.
• Short exposures to secondhand smoke can decrease coronary flow velocity reserves to levels observed in smokers and reduce heart rate variability.
• Adults who breathe five hours of secondhand smoke daily have higher levels of the “bad” cholesterol that can clog the arteries of the heart.
• Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In 2003, an estimated 1.2 million Americans had a heart attack. Many Americans have heart disease without knowing it.
• Persons who already have heart disease are at especially high risk of suffering adverse effects from breathing secondhand smoke, and should take special precautions to avoid even brief exposures.
Secondhand smoke exposure can also make a heart attack more severe than it would have been in the absence of exposure.
Source: www.cdc.gov/tobacco/factsheets/