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Passive smoking

Passive smoking is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Passive smoking rather than just read about it. In short: Passive smoking is the inhalation by individuals other than the smoker of tobacco smoke, called second-hand smoke, passive smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmosphere as an aerosol pollutant, which leads to its inhalation by nearby bystanders within the same environment.

Passive smoking — main illustration
Passive smoking — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Passive smoking belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Passive smoking to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Passive smoking from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Passive smoking is the inhalation by individuals other than the smoker of tobacco smoke, called second-hand smoke, passive smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmosphere as an aerosol pollutant, which leads to its inhalation by nearby bystanders within the same environment. Exposure to passive tobacco smoke causes many of the same health effects caused by active smoking, although at a lower prevalence due to the reduced concentration of smoke that enters the airway. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report published in 2023, more than 1.3 million deaths are attributed to passive smoking worldwide every year. The health risks of passive smoke are a matter of scientific consensus, and have been a major motivation for smoking bans in workplaces and indoor venues, including restaurants, bars and night clubs, as well as some open public spaces. Concerns around passive smoke have played a central role in the debate over the harms and regulation of tobacco products. Since the early 1970s, the tobacco industry has viewed public concern over passive smoke as a serious threat to its business interests. Despite the industry's awareness of the harms of passive smoke as early as the 1980s, the tobacco industry coordinated a scientific controversy with the purpose of stopping regulation of their products.

Terminology Fritz Lickint created the term "passive smoking" ("Passivrauchen") in a publication in the German language during the 1930s. Terms used include "environmental tobacco smoke" to refer to the airborne matter, while "involuntary smoking" and "passive smoking" refer to exposure to second-hand smoke. The term "environmental tobacco smoke" can be traced back to a 1974 industry-sponsored meeting held in Bermuda, while the term "passive smoking" was first used in the title of a scientific paper in 1970. The Surgeon General of the United States prefers to use the phrase "second-hand smoke" rather than "environmental tobacco smoke", stating that "The descriptor 'second-hand' captures the involuntary nature of the exposure, while 'environmental' does not." Most researchers consider the term "passive smoking" to be synonymous with "second-hand smoke". In contrast, a 2011 commentary in Environmental Health Perspectives argued that research into "thirdhand smoke" renders it inappropriate to refer to passive smoking with the term "second-hand smoke", which the authors stated constitutes a pars pro toto. The term "sidestream smoke" is sometimes used to refer to smoke that goes into the air directly from a burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe, while "mainstream smoke" refers to smoke that a smoker exhales.

Health effects

Passive smoke causes many of the diseases of direct smoking, including cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases. These include:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Passive smoking: Tobacco smoke in an English pub before a ban came into place in 2007
Tobacco smoke in an English pub before a ban came into place in 2007
Passive smoking: Old prevention poster from New Zealand. "When a child breathes air filled with cigarette smoke it can be as bad as if he actually smoked the cigarette himself."
Old prevention poster from New Zealand. "When a child breathes air filled with cigarette smoke it can be as bad as if he actually smoked the cigarette himself."
Passive smoking: Children playing while their mothers smoke, 1945. Scenes such as this were common before the dangers of passive smoke were widely recognized.
Children playing while their mothers smoke, 1945. Scenes such as this were common before the dangers of passive smoke were widely recognized.
Passive smoking: Exposure to passive smoke by age, race, and poverty level in the US in 2010
Exposure to passive smoke by age, race, and poverty level in the US in 2010
Passive smoking: Breath CO monitor displaying carbon monoxide concentration of an exhaled breath sample (in ppm) with corresponding percent concentration of carboxyhemoglobin displayed below
Breath CO monitor displaying carbon monoxide concentration of an exhaled breath sample (in ppm) with corresponding percent concentration of carboxyhemoglobin displayed below

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Passive smoking

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Passive smoking claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Passive smoking before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Passive smoking ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Passive smoking

In research
Passive smoking appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Passive smoking in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Passive smoking is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Air pollution, Health effects of tobacco, Indoor air pollution, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Passive smoking outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Passive smoking in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Passive smoking means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Passive smoking out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Passive smoking in simple terms?

Passive smoking is the inhalation by individuals other than the smoker of tobacco smoke, called second-hand smoke, passive smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmosphere as an aerosol pollutant, which leads to its inhalation b…

Why does Passive smoking matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Passive smoking?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Passive smoking.

Tags

  • Air pollution
  • Health effects of tobacco
  • Indoor air pollution
  • Smoke
  • Smoking

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