Experts: Possible COVID-19 risk with secondhand smoke
You’re sitting outdoors at a cafe, ready to wolf down your waffle. Then a cloud of cigarette smoke wafts over from the socially distant table next to you. The plume goes right into your maskless nostrils.
What appears to be just an irritant at brunch that might flare up your asthma now poses a medical question: Is secondhand smoke a COVID-19 risk?
While there aren’t any official studies yet, health experts say it’s possible.
At a time when we’re outside more, and of course, eating without masks, it’s a question that needs some exploration — and explanation.
Doctors have learned a lot about COVID-19. It primarily spreads through small droplets from the nose or mouth. The disease commonly affects the lungs.
When people exhale smoke from cigarettes and e-cigarettes, they release droplets into the air, just like when they cough, sneeze or speak. If the smoker has COVID-19, “exhaling cigarette smoke could potentially also spread COVID-19,” the World Health Organization said in an email.
It’s a hypothesis WHO’s team in Geneva is looking into. The team is assessing evidence for an updated meta-analysis on the possible link between tobacco, ecigarette use and COVID-19, including secondhand smoke, a spokeswoman said.
Droplets are also released into the air when people vape and smoke cigars and hookahs, which means that if you’re close enough to smell the smoke, you’re likely
inhaling their droplets too.
While there isn’t “any direct evidence” yet that secondhand smoke could transmit COVID-19, if you put all the data together of what is known about the virus and how smoking works, “you can make a pretty compelling argument” that a risk exists, said Dr. Mark Block of Memorial Healthcare System. He is the chief of thoracic surgery at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, and a regional board member for the American Lung Association in Florida.
Health officials also believe that the longer you’re exposed to the virus, the
higher your chance of falling ill is. This means that your risk of catching COVID-19 from a symptomatic or asymptomatic smoker could depend on how long you’re smelling their smoke, Block said.
“When you’re outdoors and you’re walking past somebody or somebody passes you, the amount of time you are exposed to the aerosol is so limited that it’s probably not a significant risk factor in getting infected,” Block said. “Now that we are eating outside, sometimes you’re sitting downwind from somebody who is smoking, so you smell their cigarette smoke. I wouldn’t want to be in that environment for an extended period of time.”
Still, even with the risks, experts say it’s safer to stay outside where you can socially distance (be at least 6 feet away from others) than be packed indoors with other people.
“Sometimes smokers don’t feel like they need to quit. Now they have an additional reason to quit smoking. With COVID, not only are you putting yourself at greater risk, but you are putting the people around you at greater risk,” Block said.
Current and former smokers may also be at higher risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19 because smoking impairs the lungs, making it harder for the body to fight off coronaviruses and other diseases, according to WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vapers may also have an increased risk of falling ill, said WHO.