The US Surgeon General (Surgeon General Carmona) has just released a new report on second-hand smoke, and since this has been a hotly debated issue here at dKos (along with other issues relating to addiction), I though it might be of interest to my fellow kossaks.
In a press release about this long-awaited report, (http://www.hhs.gov/...), they report that
there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. The finding is of major public health concern due to the fact that nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.
Make the jump with me
Hubby & I are trying to get our act together so we can buy life insurance (goddess forbid something happens to one or both of us before we do). If hubby can quit smoking once and for all (and stay nicotine-free for a year) his rates would be cut in half. So smoking is an issue that's been on my mind for a while now.
At any rate - we're all big fans of science here so I'm hoping this report will carry some weight and generate a little discussion. In this report, Carmona states that
"The scientific evidence is now indisputable: secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance. It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children and nonsmoking adults."
There was a time where second-hand smoke was a given if you worked with someone who smoked. One of my first jobs in DC was for a Congressman from the mid-west, and his receptionist smoked - a lot. So much so that I found myself holding my breath whenever I had to go through the front office. Not so any more - many workplaces have cleared the air so to speak and this has had a lasting affect on the overall health of this nation's workforce...
"The good news is that, unlike some public health hazards, secondhand smoke exposure is easily prevented," Surgeon General Carmona said. "Smoke-free indoor environments are proven, simple approaches that prevent exposure and harm." The report finds that even the most sophisticated ventilation systems cannot completely eliminate secondhand smoke exposure and that only smoke-free environments afford full protection.
Surgeon General Carmona noted that levels of cotinine -- a biological marker for secondhand smoke exposure -- measured in nonsmokers have fallen by 70 percent since the late 1980s, and the proportion of nonsmokers with detectable cotinine levels has been halved from 88 percent in 1988-91 to 43 percent in 2001-02.
One big concern is over that of children exposed to second-hand smoke. In an article from June 20, 2006 (
http://www.cnn.com/...) , CNN talks about a new international report discussing the dangers to young people...
A new international study of more than 20,000 children confirms that exposure to cigarette smoke before and after birth impairs their lung function and that parental smoking remains a serious public health issue.
The effects of smoking during pregnancy last up to age 12, while exposure to cigarette smoking after birth further worsens lung function, Dr. Manfred A. Neuberger of the Medical University in Vienna, Austria, one of the study's authors, told Reuters.
snip
Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were 31 percent to 40 percent more likely to have poor lung function than children born to non-smokers, the researchers found. Early life exposure independently increased risk of poor lung function to a lesser degree, by 24 percent to 27 percent.
And CNN reports today (http://www.cnn.com/...) that
Since then, numerous other health agencies have linked to secondhand smoke to heart disease and other illnesses. Earlier this year, California health officials estimated that secondhand smoke kills about 3,400 nonsmoking Americans annually from lung cancer, 46,000 from heart disease, and 430 from SIDS.
snip
The new report gives new scientific ammunition against those challenges, said Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
"There is no longer a scientific controversy that secondhand smoke is a killer," he said. The report "eliminates any excuse from any state or city for taking halfway measures to restrict smoking, or permitting smoking in any indoor workplace."
snip
Among other findings:
Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilation systems don't eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.
There is good evidence that comprehensive smoking bans, such as those in New York City and Boston, don't economically hurt the hospitality industry.
Workplace smoking restrictions not only reduce secondhand smoke but also discourage active smoking by employees.
Secondhand smoke can act on the arteries so quickly that even a brief pass through someone else's smoke can endanger people at high risk of heart disease. Don't ever smoke around a sick relative, Carmona advised
Living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker's risk of lung cancer and heart disease by up to 30 percent.
There isn't proof that secondhand smoke causes breast cancer, although the evidence is suggestive. California earlier this year cited that link in becoming the first state to declare secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant.
On the plus side, blood measurements of a nicotine byproduct show that exposure to secondhand smoke has decreased. Levels dropped by 75 percent in adults and 68 percent in children between the early 1990s and 2002. However, not only has children's exposure declined less rapidly, but levels of that byproduct among children are more than twice as high as in nonsmoking adults.
So I thought I'd throw this out there and see where it takes us. Many of us have battled addiction of one kind or another and I'm guessing this is one of the biggies. My own father (who died an active alcoholic) was able to quit drinking for a month or three now and then - but he was never able to get the nicotine monkey off his back. He said it was easier to quit drinking than it was to quit smoking. Hat's off to anyone who tries and succeeds. Not sure I could do it but I sure am pulling for hubby.
UPDATE
Sorry - I thought I'd already included a link to that report... you can find it HERE