[Passive smoking. Effects on health]

Passive smoking--also called involuntary or environmental smoking--is the exposure of non-smokers to the tobacco smoke released by smokers. The physico-chemical composition of tobacco smoke, and notably its contents in toxic and carcinogenic substances, is the same in the secondary stream between puffs as in the primary stream released by the smoker. The pathogenic effects of passive smoking are increasingly well known and accepted. A high incidence of respiratory tract infections and of chronic respiratory and asthmatic symptoms is observed in children. In adults, passive smoking seems to be one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Its repercussions on the respiratory tracts is difficult to evaluate, but there are marked by an increase of respiratory symptoms and perhaps of chronic obstructive lung diseases. Finally, it is now recognized that passive smoking is a major risk factor for primary lung cancer in non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke.