Take Heart: Tobacco, Secondhand Smoke and Heart Health

By Cassie Kauffman, MA Health Education Specialist, Tobacco Program

February is American Heart Month.  It is a special time to treat your heart well and treat a sweetheart to something special. A true gift from (and to) the heart is giving up tobacco and smoking and avoiding secondhand smoke. Most people know that smoking affects the lungs, but did you know that it contributes to various conditions and diseases of the heart as well? Smoking causes blood pressure and pulse to increase, adds carbon monoxide to the blood stream, and creates fatty buildup in the arteries (atherosclerosis). Many studies detail the evidence that cigarette smoking is a major cause of coronary heart disease, which can lead to heart attack and death.
According to the American Heart Association cigarette smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States. It accounts for more than 440,000 of the more than 2.4 million annual deaths. Additionally, if it doesn’t kill you, it could leave you with a permanent disability.
What about secondhand smoke? There is a definite link between secondhand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke) and disease, and the connection to cardiovascular-related disability and death is also clear. About 35,000 nonsmokers die from coronary heart disease, which includes heart attack caused by other people's smoke each year.

Secondhand smoke is the combination of the exhaled smoke from the smoker and the smoke burning from the tip of the cigarette.  This includes more than 4,000 chemicals, including ammonia, formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Sixty of these are proven to be carcinogenic or cancer-causing. Secondhand smoke has been categorized as a Group A carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency. Other Group A carcinogens include asbestos and radon.

A 2005 study from Pueblo, Colorado showed an immediate and significant decline in heart attack admissions at Pueblo’s major hospitals after a citywide smoke-free indoor air ordinance went into effect. The Pueblo Heart Study showed that heart attack rates among Pueblo city residents decreased by nearly 30 percent after implementing the city’s Smoke-free Indoor Air Act. The study included an analysis of electronic medical records from the two primary hospitals in Pueblo, evaluating the number of heart attacks over a three-year period from January of 2002 to December of 2004. This timeframe covered the year and a half before the city’s Smoke-free Indoor Air Act was put in place on 7/1/2003, as well as a year and a half afterward.

Greeley has a similar ordinance and while a comprehensive study has not yet been conducted, the benefits here should be similar. In fact, preliminary data released by Dr. Paul Hurst, a cardiologist at North Colorado Medical Center, has found a 16 percent decline in heart attacks at the hospital.  Data regarding heart attacks are one of the most compelling reasons to stay away from secondhand smoke because it can increase the likelihood of a heart attack with only 30 minutes of exposure.

The best present you can give yourself, your friends and family -- the choice of being free from tobacco. What a heart-felt gift.

Call the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment’s Tobacco Program (970) 304-6470  x2123 for more information on quitting and secondhand smoke. You can also call the state Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or visit www.coquitline.org