Second-hand bong smoke is far more toxic than tobacco — here’s why

It’s no secret that passive smoking is bad for your health. It contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic and causes over 41,000 deaths annually, according to the American Lung Association.

The list of health problems and serious illnesses that tobacco causes in smokers and non-smokers alike is long.

Stunning data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that passive smoking accounts for more than 8,000 deaths from stroke each year among non-smokers in the United States, 7,300 deaths from lung cancer and nearly 34,000 premature deaths from heart disease are.

Particles from the mixture of exhaled smoke, released when tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars or pipes are burned, settle on dust and surfaces and persist long after the smoke has evaporated, research has shown.

What about second-hand cannabis smoke?

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that second-hand marijuana smoke is more harmful than second-hand tobacco smoke, USA Today reported.

The study, published in the JAMA Network Open, found that non-smokers can be exposed to air pollutants at levels twice federal air quality limits.

RELATED: Will I get high or sick from smoking second-hand marijuana?

An aerosol monitor, positioned where a bystander might sit, measured air quality — more specifically, particulate matter (PM2.5) — in a bong smoker’s living room where a group of young adults smoked cannabis for two hours. The instrument recorded PM2.5 levels before, during and after eight sessions.

Results showed that smoking cannabis bongs increased PM2.5 levels by at least 100-fold over background levels. In addition, after the first 15 minutes of smoking, PM2.5 levels, which can penetrate deep into the airways and impair lung function, significantly exceeded air quality levels considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo by Goodboy Picture Company/Getty Images

Do not smoke indoors

Patton Nguyen, a UC Berkeley graduate student and colleague Patton Nguyen, conducted the study in his senior year and concluded, “Don’t smoke indoors,” Nguyen said. “Understand that you may harm others and be aware that smoking bongs is a public health concern.”

PM2.5 concentrations from cannabis bong smoke were four times the air mass than from tobacco smoke.

“There is very little research in this area,” said Dr. Silvia Martins, professor of epidemiology and director of the Division of Substance Use Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “This (study) is one of the first in a controlled setting.”

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.