“It stinks a bit, but it doesn’t bother me. It’s just a little cloud.” “The smoke stays in the air for only a few seconds – how could that be dangerous for me?” “But I don’t smoke! It’s impossible that the junk in cigarettes could affect me.”
How much do you really know about second-hand smoke? Are you sure your air isn’t threatened?
Do this quiz to see…
1. One cigarette produces smoke for around 12 minutes. The smoker inhales it for around _____ seconds.
a) 90
b) 30
c) 60
Oops! Wrong answer… Try again.
Bravo! Right answer.
And the other 690 seconds? In fact, 2/3 of a cigarette’s smoke is not inhaled by the smoker, but is released into the air. With 4,800 toxic substances, 60 of which cause cancer, does that really not bother you?
2. If you were 50 cm away from a lit cigarette, you could be breathing _____ times more of its 4,800 toxic substances than the smoker.
a) 2
b) 5
c) 10
Oops! Wrong answer… Try again.
Bravo! Right Answer.
Turpentine, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, arsenic… A breath of really toxic air! And the list goes on… Visit "The junk" to discover some others.
3. How long does a normal air ventilation system take to eliminate 95% of the second-hand smoke from a single cigarette?
a) 1 hour
b) ½ hour
c) 3 hours
Oops! Wrong answer… Try again.
Bravo! Right answer.
And there’s 5% left that is still very harmful to your health. Smoking particles can also stay in the carpets, curtains, furniture, clothes and food long after those 3 hours, up to days, weeks or months! Invisible, but worrisome…
So don’t be fooled. Ventilation systems, oven fans, lowered car windows, open windows at home: nothing can effectively eliminate all the smoke from a cigarette. The only way to protect others from second-hand smoke is to smoke outside.
4. A cigarette butt can take up to _____ to break down.
a) 10 weeks
b) 10 months
c) 10 years
Oops! Wrong answer… Try again.
Bravo! Right answer.
A cigarette butt can take from 18 months to 10 years to break down in nature, mainly because of the elements of the filter. In addition to being toxic, cigarette butts are a major sanitation problem, because they end up everywhere: on streets, in rivers, on beaches...
5. In Canada, around 3 NON-smokers die every _______ from an illness caused by second-hand smoke.
a) day
b) week
c) month
Oops! Wrong answer… Try again.
Bravo! Right answer.
And they might have never smoked! Heather Crowe is one of them. She never in her life smoked, but she worked in a restaurant with a smoking section. She died of lung cancer May 22, 2006. You can see a touching TV ad about her here. We’re lucky that smoking is now prohibited in public places. And what about at your place?
