Passive Smoking

Passive Smoking is a general catch-all phrase that attempts to describe the adsorption or absorption of the by-products of smoking by people and/or things other than the active smoker, usually with alleged deleterious effects.

For example, in the case of Second Hand Smoke, smoke from both the end of a lit cigarette, and that exhaled by the active smoker, may be inhaled by near-by people, or may settle on inanimate objects directly near-by.

In the case of Third Hand Smoke, the by-products that settle on inanimate objects that subsequently metamorphoses into other by-products.

No-one, yet, has seriously accused 'Fourth Hand Smoke' of causing harm, though it has been half-jokenly referred to as, among other things:

• smoke exposure resulting from being in the presence of someone who themselves was in the presence of a smoker.
• when a person is forced to listen to someone complaining about how their friend’s clothes smelled of smoke from being at a bar the night before
• the presence in the family home, domicile or dwelling place (this includes motor vehicles some of which retain mobility) of unopened, un-smoked cigarettes contained in a pack, or individual cigarettes bought from less than reputable corner stores that are contained in re-sealable Ziploc bags

Higher degrees of smokiness, have predictably been cited, usually in the same manner as Fourth Hand Smoke above.

On a more serious note, most mention of secondary smoke, when referred to by the anti-smokers, is usually accompanied by grisly descriptions of what may/will/has happened to 'victims' of it. These descriptions are usually worse than the symptoms attributable to 'First Hand Smoke,' somehow implying that the effects of SHS are of an order worse and totally different.

That the smoker themselves is also exposed to this second/third/fourth hand smoke, as well as the first hand smoke, and seem to suffer none of these effects is casually not mentioned.

Sadly, while there are few, if any, documented cases of people seriously suffering from SHS (asthma suffers susceptible to 'smoke' are susceptible to a lot of things for example) there are quite a few documented cases of people dying or suffering severe injury due do policies put in place to 'protect' people from SHS.

Second Hand Smoke

No-one has died from SHS.

Despite all the articles you can find on the web citing the horrors of second hand smoke, not one person has had SHS cited as the reason for death.

Mario Labate's widow, despite his working in an office for 29 years exposed to a large amount of secondhand tobacco smoke, and subsequently died from lung cancer, failed to get the cause of death recorded as SHS, with the court recording:

While acknowledging Mr Labate’s exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and finding no other cause for his lung cancer, the Medical Committee in its decision nonetheless stated that it could not establish with certainty the connection with his professional activities. The Commission accordingly denied the request, following the finding by the Medical Committee that the connection between the disease and Mr Labate’s professional activities was not sufficiently established.

Scotland on Second Hand Smoke

On being asked via FoI request for "d) All information on actual deaths in Scotland attributable to Second Hand Smoke otherwise known as “Passive Smoking” , "Sidestream Smoke" or “Environmental Tobacco Smoke” from the years 2000 - 2009," Mary Cuthbert, Head of Tobacco, Sexual Health and HIV Policy, replied (emphasis added):

We hold no information about actual deaths due to passive smoking. It is not possible to give precise figures on deaths resulting from tobacco use. However, it is estimated that each year more than 13,000 people in Scotland die from smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke. (figures taken from The UK Smoking Epidemic; deaths in 1995, produced by the London : Health Education Authority in 1998) . The numbers of deaths attributed to passive smoking are primarily estimated from studies comparing the rates of deaths due to smoking attributable diseases among similar people who have not had such exposure. A link to the most recent study commissioned on behalf of the Scottish Government is attached http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/448.aspx

And for "e) all information held on “Third Hand Smoke,” replied:

Please note after reviewing our records we hold no information in connection with (e) of your request.

Second hand smoke crosses the placenta

Seriously. Apparently. According to, it would appear from reports, Julia Dratva, a doctor at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute:

Atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries due to accumulation of, e.g., cholesterol] in children can begin in the womb as passive tobacco smoke crosses the placenta, leading to low birth-weight and impaired lung development. The condition can lead to blood clots and strokes later on in life.

Quite how this sort of pseudo-science gets published is somewhat annoying - smoke cannot pass between mother and baby in utero, via the placenta or by any other method known to science. Unfortunately, the exact source of this statement is unclear, since Ms. Dratva is not quoted directly and (at the time of writing) all articles referring to it are copy/pasted - a phenomenon known as churnalism.