According to the recent American Heart Association (AHA) Rapid Access Journal Report, just one minute of inhaling secondhand marijuana smoke could damage blood vessels.
According to the study, blood vessels in rats took approximately three times longer to fully recover their function after just one minute of inhaling secondhand marijuana than it takes to recover after a minute of secondhand tobacco smoke.
“While the effect is temporary for both cigarette and marijuana smoke, these temporary problems can turn into long-term problems if exposures occur often enough and may increase the chances of developing hardened and clogged arteries,” Dr. Matthew Springer, study senior author and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said.
Because the arteries of humans and rates are similar in their responses to inhaling secondhand tobacco smoke, health experts believe that this study is an accurate depiction of how human arteries would respond to secondhand marijuana smoke as well.
“There is widespread belief that, unlike tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is benign,” Springer said. “We in public health have been telling the public to avoid secondhand tobacco smoke for years, but we don't tell them to avoid secondhand marijuana smoke, because until now we haven’t had evidence that it can be harmful.”
