I almost got broncitus because of my dads second hand smoke! I know second hand smoke is worse! The reasoning behind it is although the smoker is breathing in the smoke directly they have a filter on the cigerett. However someone like me who has to ride in the car on along car ride does NOT have a filter and so I breathed in the second hand smoke chemicals which are just as bad as the first hand smoke only worse cuz its unfiltered.

I wouldn't say that second hand smoking is worse, but it's definitely bad for your health. People shouldn't smoke in the first place, but if they do they're putting the people around them at risk too.

I don't believe that second hand smoke is worse than directly inhaling the smoke as a smoker does, but I do believe that it is certainly bad for you. Regular and long term exposure to it is nearly as bad as smoking directly.

It is scientific fact that second hand smoke is worse than what the smoker inhales for two reasons: the smoke that comes off the end contains more of the harmful toxins than the smoke that is inhaled, and on top of that, the smoker has a filter.

According to a study in 2005, investigators report that the cardiovascular system of nonsmokers is extremely sensitive to tobacco toxins inhaled during passive smoking. They reached this conclusion by analyzing 29 studies that measured the risk of heart disease in people who never smoked tobacco, but who were exposed to secondhand smoke.

While secondhand smokers only inhale about 1/100th the dose of smoke inhaled by the smokers themselves, the effect of that secondhand smoke is large. Secondhand smokers have a risk of coronary heart disease that is 30% higher than for nonsmokers who are not exposed to secondhand smoke. In contrast, the risk for actual smokers is increased by 80%. So, while the dose of smoke inhaled by passive smoking is 100 times smaller than for smokers, the increase in risk to the nonsmokers is much, much greater than that. Indeed, their excess risk is almost 40% as high as the excess risk to the smokers themselves.

The investigators further listed the effects that secondhand smoke have been shown to have on the cardiovascular system that can lead to an increase in cardiac disease. These include: making platelets stickier, causing inflammation, reducing HDL cholesterol levels, increasing LDL cholesterol levels, and increasing insulin resistance. Some of these effects can be measured after just a few minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke.

It helps there a filter for smokers but it's just plain bad all round.