FDNY Insider- Bureau of Health Services
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Health Impact of Second Hand Smoke
When You Quit Smoking, Your Child’s Health Will Improve
- Secondhand smoke exposes your children to all the harmful ingredients in tobacco.
- Did you know that there are four thousand chemicals in tobacco?
- At least forty-three of those chemicals are considered cancer causing by the U.S. Surgeon General.
- Two hundred of those chemicals are poisons, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Exposure to secondhand smoke will affect and diminish the development of a young child’s pulmonary function. For your child living in a smoking household, among the health impacts they are likely to experience are:
- More frequent ear infections;
- More cases of upper respiratory infections;
- Higher number and severity of asthma attacks;
- Increased risk of developing bronchitis and pneumonia;
- Two to three times more likely to suffer Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Among the hidden costs of smoking for your family, due to second hand smoke exposure, are:
- The additional number of doctors’ visits per year;
- The medications required to treat the respiratory conditions caused by tobacco smoke exposure;
- The number of sick days used to take your child to the doctor;
- The number of additional lost school days per year, due to illness, for your child.
You can quit! The BHS Tobacco Cessation Program, funded by a September 11 Recovery Grant of the American Red Cross Liberty Disaster Relief Fund, can help. For more than three years the BHS Tobacco Cessation Program has helped FDNY members to quit, with a high success rate. Even if you have smoked for thirty years or more, and have tried to quit many times before, this free BHS program can help you and your children. Through a combination of personalized quit guidance, diet modifications, exercise tips, and free nicotine replacement medication, Matt Bars, our nationally renowned Tobacco Dependence expert, can provide you with the formula for success!
Call Mike Andreacchi, a well-known BHS staff and retired FDNY member, at (718) 999-1942, to schedule your first visit.