[Damage from passive tobacco smoking]

The author presents data on the biological casualties and consequences of tobacco-smoking. Smoking is the most dangerous addiction in the scale of the world and in Poland. It causes numerous premature decrease and tobacco-dependent sickness. The author characterises the spread of this addiction in Poland concentrating on the problem of the passive smoking harmfulness. Non-smokers, children and youth, embryo and foetus during the pregnancy are exposed to the passive smoking. The experimental examinations of animals and the analysis of the lateral stream of the tobacco smoke confirm not the least, but rather the greater damage of the passive smoking than the active one. The mechanisms of acting of the tobacco smoke on the passive smokers' body and the health consequences are discussed. The manners, means and activities that are useful for the health protection of non-smokers against the tobacco smoke and the ways of the smoking prevention are described.