Ecotherapy can improve your mental and physical wellbeing through doing outdoor activities, by working in nature, such as a conservation project, gardening or farming, or by experiencing nature, such as enjoying the views on a walk or cycling through some woodland.
In the UK, children breathing in other people’s cigarette smoke results in 300,000 GP visits and 9,500 hospital admissions for children every year.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of second-hand smoke because they breathe more rapidly and have less developed airways, lungs and immune systems.
In the UK, it is illegal to smoke in vehicles with someone under 18 present. The driver and passenger could be fined £50.
Breathing in second-hand smoke increases a child’s or an adult’s risk of lung cancer by 24% and heart disease by 25%.
Second-hand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which are irritants, toxins and poisons including arsenic, benzene and cyanide. More than 50 are known carcinogens that can cause cancer.
More than 80% of second-hand smoke is invisible and odourless, so no matter how careful you think you’re being, your family still breathes in harmful poisons, putting them at risk of meningitis, cancer, bronchitis and pneumonia.
Second-hand smoke is the smoke exhaled by you, plus the smoke created by the lit end of a cigarette. People who breathe in second-hand smoke are at risk of the same diseases as smokers.
Flu usually comes on much more quickly than a cold, and symptoms include: sudden fever of 38-40C, muscle aches and pains, sweating, feeling exhausted and needing to lie down, a dry chesty cough.
Colds and flu share some of the same symptoms. Colds cause more nasal problems, such as blocked nose, than flu. Fever, fatigue and muscle aches are more likely and more severe with flu.