Second-hand smoke comes from two places: smoke breathed out by the person who smokes, and smoke from the end of a burning cigarette.

Around 350 New Zealanders die each year because of exposure to other people’s tobacco smoke. This makes second-hand smoke the leading environmental cause of death in this country.

Second-hand smoke contains a lethal mix of more than 4,000 chemicals, such as arsenic, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and carbon monoxide. Two hundred are poisons and cause cancer.

Second-hand smoke has been shown to contribute to:

• coronary heart disease
• lung cancer
• acute stroke
• eye and nasal irritation
• nasal sinus cancer.

Second-hand smoke is particularly dangerous for children, and can cause chest infections, glue ear, childhood asthma, and deaths from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, or cot death).
 

What you can do:

Make your home and car smokefree...

Smokefree Car resources...

Smokefree/Auahi Kore car sunshades - $3.20 each