Many people know secondhand smoke is a danger to health. However, most people, including many health professionals, don't realize just how dangerous it is, especially inside multifamily housing like apartment buildings.
Why is Secondhand Smoke a Big Threat to Health?
According to the American Lung Association: Secondhand smoke causes approximately 7,330 deaths from lung cancer and 33,950 deaths from heart disease each year.
Between 1964 and 2014, 2.5 million people died from exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the 2014 report from the U.S. Surgeon General. The report also concluded that secondhand smoke is a definitive cause of stroke.
There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or ...
We know secondhand smoke is deadly. We also know that, inside places like apartments, people are exposed to secondhand smoke as it travels through doorways, halls, windows, ventilation systems, and electrical outlets. So what if we could cut secondhand smoke exposure in the home? Well, after a national media campaign to reduce cigarette smoking in homes in Scotland, hospital admissions of under-five-year-old children dropped 25%, according to a recent study in Lancet Public Health. "Our findings suggest that smoke-free home interventions could be an important tool to reduce asthma admissions in young children, and that smoke-free public space legislation might improve child health for many years, especially in the most deprived communities," according to the ...
Too many families have struggled with food insecurity for too many years. Getting access to enough healthy food is a task that has only been made harder by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is especially harming Latinos. Worse, food insecurity is overburdening social services and nonprofit organizations that provide much-needed food—especially nutritious, healthy meals—to families, according to a recent report from the UCONN Rudd Center and the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA). “The COVID-19 pandemic placed extreme hardship on American families and the food banks that help them put dinner on the table,” the report’s authors write. “Unemployment soared and people seeking food assistance, who were also those most severely impacted by COVID-19, dramatically increased ...
The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the only catastrophe harming the health of Latinos and other communities of color. Natural disasters—such as the massive snowstorm that rocked the Texas’ energy grid in February 2021 or Hurricane Harvey that decimated South Texas in 2017—can have long-lasting impacts. These devastating weather events are directly linked to Climate Change, experts say. Many of the world’s most successful corporations are among the worst contributors to global warming. Worse, those corporations aren’t doing enough to help solve the issue, according to recent numbers from the international climate management group, whose report outlines the slow progress. “The Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark shows there is an urgent need for greater ...
When Eloísa Trinidad teamed up with New York activist Power Malu to help her community, she knew it needed to align with her values: ending the exploitation of animals. Trinidad is the executive director of Chilis on Wheels New York, a nonprofit with regional affiliates that focus on making veganism accessible to communities in need through sharing meals, providing food relief, and toiletries and clothing that don’t use animal products. She’s also the executive director of the Vegan Activist Alliance, a New York organization that fights to end animal exploitation. Together with Malu, Trinidad started Overthrow Community Fridge in New York City to provide nutritious, plant-based foods to people in need. By supporting her neighbors with healthy foods, Trinidad is also able to ...
Smoking and COVID-19 can each kill. And when you compound one's effect on the other, the harm is clearly evident. Amid a pandemic that has killed about 100,000 Latinos, there has been a significant drop in the number of people who are attempting to quit smoking using services provided by healthcare organizations, according to a recent report from the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC). This is alarming considering the dangers of smoking amid the current coronavirus infecting people across the nation, according to Dr. Susan Walley, a tobacco control expert and professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Smokers are at a higher risk for greater complications such as death, admission to intensive care and mechanical ventilation when they contract COVID-19,” she ...
Secondhand smoke damages people’s health every day, including those who live in or occupy places that allow smoking. In Horizon City—a suburb outside of El Paso, one of the cities with the state’s highest Latino population (% Latino)—local leaders just banned smoking in public spaces and businesses. The ban aims to ensure that all who live in the Texas suburb can live without having to breathe in smoke, according to Eva Olivas, the community impact director for the American Heart Association of El Paso and a Horizon City resident. “When people live and work in a smoke-free environment, they can literally breathe easier because they aren’t being exposed to the diseases and risks that come from secondhand smoke,” she told the El Paso Herald-Post. “Far too many ...
Food insecurity is impacting Latinos across the US, which includes the children of families who are struggling financially due to the spread of COVID-19. While civic leaders throughout the country need to provide greater support to these individuals, some organizations are stepping up. This includes the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) who recently announced a new location of its Healthy Weight Food Pharmacy — a neighborhood-focused resource that provides families healthy food. "Because food insecurity intersects with other social determinants of health, the Food Pharmacy team also screens patients for co-existing social needs and connects them to appropriate resources," said Alonzo South, Senior Director of Community Engagement at CHOP. "We know that many of our ...
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on housing and homelessness. City and state leaders know this. Many are implementing policies and creating unique affordable housing conversion projects that aim to make progress in solving this problem. One such piece of legislation, the "Housing Our Neighbors With Dignity Act," from New York, will enable the state to buy office buildings and hotels that have been struggling during the pandemic and turn them into affordable housing. “The housing problem in our cities has gotten worse. But, the crisis of growing vacancies in our commercial property provides an opportunity,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a recent speech. “We should convert vacant commercial space to supportive and affordable housing and we should do ...
