Second-Hand Smoke Essay

The health risks of second-hand smoke have been well documented. Individuals who are exposed to the effect of second-hand smoke are at risk of a number of adverse health outcomes, including lung cancer and asthma. Second-hand smoke pollutes the environment, one of the most important aspects of Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory. Nightingale strongly believed that a healthy environment and proper air quality and air flow was necessary to the health of the individual. Continued research into this area has indicted that Nightingale’s Environmental Theory was correct in its assumptions.Second-Hand Smoke Essay

Nightingale stressed that the quality of the environment was crucial to maintaining the health of the individual. She believed that infections were related to the quality of the air and the water. She advocated for ventilation for patients to ensure that fresh air went through their rooms. This was in opposition to the thought at the time when sick rooms were closed off and became stagnant. She developed this theory during the Crimean War and was quite advanced in her thinking, which is still amazingly relevant today (Lee, Clark, & Thompson, 2013, p. 245).Second-Hand Smoke Essay

The theory’s concepts and propositions involved a paradigm shift with regards to the sanitation of the time. At this time, garbage was piled high in the cities, sewage was not handled properly, hospitals and sick rooms were not well ventilated and clean water was not available to everyone. Nightingale proposed that these aspects be changed. There was a need for sanitation reform in the country and she helped to lead it (Montiero, 1985, p. 186). . As the sanitation reform occurred, not only did the paradigm shift, but there was also an epidemiological transition as well, away from infectious diseases as a result of this. The concepts of her theory centered on several propositions including access to clean water, improved irrigation of draining ditches, particularly for sanitation, improved lighting, improved personal hygiene and cleanliness and the importance of pure air. Nightingale believed that these various environmental factors were critical to the importance of health. Science has now shown that she was correct in these. During her time, kerosene was a means for light, which is still used today. It is a contributor of indoor air pollution. In societies, such as America that does not use kerosene, there is still a problem with lack of sunlight, which leads to disease.Second-Hand Smoke Essay