Passive smoking is very dangerous to the human body. It has many adverse effects on health such as it increases the risk of lung cancer, coronary heart disease including heart attack or angina and can also be the main reason of stroke. Apart from these, the latest study shows that passive smoking accelerates tumor growth as well.
As written in Economic Times Healthworld, some researchers from Messerli Research Institute and MedUni Vienna have discovered the organic compound which is known as acrolein. Acrolein is an acrylic aldehyde that is one of the main causes of immune system failure to defend tumors due to passive smoking habit. World Health Organisation (WHO) report says that every year around 600,000 people die worldwide due to passive smoking.
Acrolein is very toxic in nature and it promotes the damage of genetic material. Tumor growth in the human body is defended by the regulatory T cells and acrolein is responsible for inhibiting the body's natural immune system response. In this way, tumor growth is accelerated in the human body. Acrolein not only suppresses the immune system during passive smoking but also afterward.
Medical Xpress reported that while smoking, acrolein is released into the air. Anyone who is very well exposed to the smoky environment and breathes in the air containing acrolein can get the risk of immune system failure. With smokers doing passive smoking, this includes non-smokers as well such as children or family members of the smokers or any person who is exposed to the smoking environment for the long term.
Acrolein not only gets into the human body through inhalation, but it can be incorporated into the human body through other means as well. This is because, in an environment of passive smoking, acrolein can be contained in anything. Acrolein has a property to stick into anything such as dinner plates, curtains or clothes. Therefore it can be incorporated into the human body through the skin as well. Children and pregnant women should be protected from these types of environments.
