Environmental Tobacco Smoke

**Semantic type:** Hazardous or Poisonous Substance

**Definition:** Smoke that is emitted from burning tobacco, including cigarette, pipe and cigar, and from tobacco smoke exhaled by smokers. Environmental tobacco smoke consists of a huge variety of chemicals that are produced during the burning of tobacco. Among them are known or suspected toxicants, carcinogens and respiratory irritants, including nicotine, ammonia, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, acrolein, hydrogen cyanide, phenol, nitrogen oxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, N-Nitrosamines and radionuclides. Environmental tobacco smoke has numerous adverse health effects, is mutagenic and is a known human carcinogen that is associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer. (NCI05)

**Synonyms:** - ETS - Second Hand Smoke - environmental tobacco smoke - secondhand smoke