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Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
In answer to your question about why smoking outside the house doesn't protect children from the harms of secondhand smoke:
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That's kind of a misleading test, and position you're taking if basing it on that test.
Firstly, the tests performed only tested for the presence of Nicotine itself in the houses. Nicotine, in and of itself, is not a carcinogen and in healthy children and adults, the worst it does is constrict blood vessels, resulting in higher blood pressure for a period of time. Considering the vast difference in nicotine levels between first and second hand smokers, this can be concluded to be a nearly moot point unless there's some initial underlying illness being exacerbated by these effects.
Here's a quote from Wiki about Nicotine:
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The carcinogenic properties of nicotine in standalone form, separate from tobacco smoke, have not been evaluated by the IARC, and it has not been assigned to an official carcinogen group. The currently available literature indicates that nicotine, on its own, does not promote the development of cancer in healthy tissue and has no mutagenic properties. However, nicotine and the increased cholinergic activity it causes have been shown to impede apoptosis, which is one of the methods by which the body destroys unwanted cells (programmed cell death). Since apoptosis helps to remove mutated or damaged cells that may eventually become cancerous, the inhibitory actions of nicotine may create a more favourable environment for cancer to develop, though this also remains to be proven
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Furthermore, why didn't they test for the actual carcinogens that harm smokers? It certainly can't be "assumed" that just because Nicotine is there, proportionate amounts of other trace elements from cigarette smoke will be there as well. I would like a more thorough study regarding that.
I won't assume that your opinion regarding people who smoke outside still harming their kids is based on that study alone, but I'm interested as to why you would use that study to fortify your statement, because it's a pretty shoddy backup.
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