Term: Exposure to Smoke Inside the Home - (CCHS Survey Data)
Last Updated: 2010-08-10
Second-hand smoke is the smoke from a burning cigarette, pipe or cigar, or the smoke exhaled by a smoker. When you are nearby someone who is smoking, for example, inside the same enclosed space (home or car), you may breathe in second-hand smoke. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, second-hand smoke contains more than 4000 chemicals including carbon monoxide, ammonia, cadmium, and arsenic. Many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer.
In the CCHS, respondents who did not live alone or were non-smokers were asked the question, "Including both household members and regular visitors, does anyone smoke inside your home, every day or almost every day?" Possible responses include yes, no, don't know, not stated, or refusal to answer. Respondents who smoke either daily or occasionally are still included in this measure, for if they reside with other smokers they can still be exposed to second-hand smoke.
To measure this, the crude and adjusted weighted proportion of respondents who were exposed to smoke inside the home was calculated by taking the ratio of the number of respondents who answered yes to the number of all respondents. Respondents who answered don't know, not stated, or refused to answer the question or respondents for which the question was not applicable were excluded from analyses. Values were calculated using data from CCHS cycles 2.1 and 3.1.