It is no news that smoking cigarette causes hundreds of health problems -- but a new study has revealed that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to have lung disease.
According to a new study published by the American Cancer Society, childhood exposure to secondhand smoke are 31 percent more likely to die of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as a grown-up. COPD is a common lung disease that makes a person hard to breathe.
"Whether you are young or old, healthy or sick, secondhand smoke is dangerous," Ryan Diver, the director of data analysis at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study, said in a statement obtained by South China Morning Post. "No amount of secondhand smoke is safe... We need to be aware of the effects of second-hand smoke; they appear to be long lasting. We need to continue to reduce our exposure of it," director Ryan Diver added.
Michael Eriksen, a former director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health, encouraged parents or guardians not to smoke cigarettes at home and around their children. Aside from COPD, secondhand smoke may cause poor lung development, lung cancer, and even heart disease.
Another study also revealed that quitting smoking prolongs a person's life regardless of weight gain. Those individuals who quit smoking cigarettes have at least a 50 percent lower risk of dying early from heart disease and other cases. It is also one of the best thing diabetics can do to cut their risk of dying prematurely.
The news comes after many individuals, including celebrities and prominent people, died from smoking cigarettes. One of which is the former Hong Kong actress, Susanna Au Yeung, who made a name after starring as Huang Rong in TVB Jade's television series "The Return of the Condor Heroes" (1983).
According to the Straits Times, Susanna Au Yeung was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2017, after showing signs of a stroke while on vacation with her husband, Samuel Kwok Fung. She reportedly went through several rounds of brain surgery in Kuala Lumpur, and it was only after the third procedure the doctors found she had been suffering from lung cancer.
She was, then, immediately flown back to Hong Kong to receive treatment. However, no medication could cure her. She lost her battle with lung cancer in July 2017 at the age of 63.
