TABACCO SMOKE

Lung cancer kills many people in the world. The leading cause of lung cancer is tobacco smoke. The second leading cause is radon, a naturally occuring radioactive gas. Radon is relatively harmless gas. The danger arises when radon decays to produce polonium. if this happen in your lung, you risk of lung cancer increases. The combination of radon and tobacco smoking is more deadly than radon gas alone. it is up to 15 times more deadly. Radon is transformed ito polonium by a nuclear reaction. The polonium particles formed attach themselves to surfaces such as well cloth and furniture. When there is tobacco smoke in the air, much of polonium is attracted to the particles of smoke. Cigarette smoke may remain in the air inside a building for a long time. A single cigarette burned in a room increases the concentration of polonium in the air by 25%, after about five hours. This concentration remains constant for about nine hours before trailling off. Burning 20 cigarettes for a 24-hour period increases the concentration of polonium in the air up to 300%. Breathing this air result in risk of radon induced lung cancer 15 times greater than breathing smoke free air with the same concentration of radon. The combination of radon with tobacco smoke affects everyone who spends time in such a building. This is one of the reasons for the prohibitions of smoking in public buildings and in public transports in developed countries.