Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
69 
As an illustration of the health risks, in the case of a married couple where one partner is a 
smoker and one a nonsmoker, the latter is believed to have a 30 per cent higher risk of death 
from heart disease because of passive smoking. The risk of lung cancer also increases over the 
years of exposure and the figure jumps to 80 per cent if the spouse has been smoking four 
packs a day for 20 years. It has been calculated that 17 per cent of cases of lung cancer can be 
attributed to high levels of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke during childhood and 
adolescence. 
A more recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has 
shown that secondhand cigarette smoke does more harm to nonsmokers than to smokers. 
Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone 
else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the smoke experienced by many people in 
their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a person’s heart and 
lungs. 
The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), was based 
on the researchers’ own earlier research but also includes a review of studies over the past 
few years. The American Medical Association represents about half of all US doctors and is a 
strong opponent of smoking. The study suggests that people who smoke cigarettes are 
continually damaging their cardiovascular system, which adapts in order to compensate for 
the effects of smoking. It further states that people who do not smoke do not have the 
benefit of their system adapting to the smoke inhalation. Consequently, the effects of passive 
smoking are far greater on non-smokers than on smokers. 
This report emphasizes that cancer is not caused by a single element in cigarette smoke; 
harmful effects to health are caused by many components. Carbon monoxide, for example, 
competes with oxygen in red blood cells and interferes with the blood’s ability to deliver life-
giving oxygen to the heart. Nicotine and other toxins in cigarette smoke activate small blood 
cells called platelets, which increases the likelihood of blood clots, thereby affecting blood 
circulation throughout the body. 
The researchers criticize the practice of some scientific consultants who work with the 
tobacco industry for assuming that cigarette smoke has the same impact on smokers as it 
does on nonsmokers. 
They argue that those scientists are underestimating the damage done by passive smoking 
and, in support of their recent findings, cite some previous research which points to passive 
smoking as the cause for between 30,000 and 60,000 deaths from heart attacks each year in 
the United States. This means that passive smoking is the third most preventable cause of 
death after active smoking and alcohol-related diseases. 
The study argues that the type of action needed against passive smoking should be similar to 
that being taken against illegal drugs and AIDS (SIDA). The UCSF researchers maintain that the 
simplest and most cost-effective action is to establish smoke-free work places, schools and 
public places.