Psychological Reactions of Nonsmokers to Secondhand Smoke

logical reactions of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke reviewed by Gibson (I 994) is impressive, but it understates the psychological effects. Speaking for the many nonsmokers with respiratory diseases, we experience each exposure to secondhand smoke as an immediate and often painful threat to health. As a consequence, we feel an anger toward smokers in our vicinity that is equal to the anger that anyone would feel against a person who assaults them. This anger is far more potent and dangerous a psychological effect than the ones that have been documented by researchers to date. Psychology has an opportunity to play a leading role in the effort to help smokers and nonsmokers live together healthily and peaceably, but only if we understand that the negative reactions of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke are intense

Environmental health · Secondhand smoke · Smoke · Medicine · Psychology · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis · Clinical Psychology · Social Psychology

• Psychological aspects of smoker-nonsmoker interaction

  Bryan Gibson•American Psychologist•1994

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