 |
|
Study confirms the risk of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke outdoors
May 03, 2007Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from secondhand tobacco smoke, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General. While the health risks associated with indoor secondhand smoke are well documented, little research has been done on exposure to toxic tobacco fumes outdoors.
Now, Stanford University researchers have conducted the first in-depth study on how smoking affects air quality at sidewalk cafés, park benches and other outdoor locations. Writing in the May issue of the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association (JAWMA), the Stanford team concluded that a non-smoker sitting a few feet downwind from a smoldering cigarette is likely to be exposed to substantial levels of contaminated air for brief periods of time.
"Some folks have expressed the opinion that exposure to outdoor tobacco smoke is insignificant, because it dissipates quickly into the air," said Neil Klepeis, assistant professor (consulting) of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and lead author of the study. "But our findings show that a person sitting or standing next to a smoker outdoors can breathe in wisps of smoke that are many times more concentrated than normal background air pollution levels."
Klepeis pointed to the 2006 Surgeon General's report, which found that even brief exposures to secondhand smoke may have adverse effects on the heart and respiratory systems and increase the severity of asthma attacks, especially in children.
"We were surprised to discover that being within a few feet of a smoker outdoors may expose you to air pollution levels that are comparable, on average, to indoor levels that we measured in previous studies of homes and taverns," said Wayne Ott, professor (consulting) of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and co-author of the JAWMA study. "For example, if you're at a sidewalk café, and you sit within 18 inches of a person who smokes two cigarettes over the course of an hour, your exposure to secondhand smoke could be the same as if you sat one hour inside a tavern with smokers. Based on our findings, a child in close proximity to adult smokers at a backyard party also could receive substantial exposure to secondhand smoke."
Unlike indoor tobacco smoke, which can persist for hours, the researchers found that outdoor smoke disappears rapidly when a cigarette is extinguished. "Our data also show that if you move about six feet away from an outdoor smoker, your exposure levels are much lower," Klepeis added.
The public has become increasingly concerned about the effects of outdoor smoking, Ott noted. More than 700 state and local governments have passed laws restricting outdoor smoking at playgrounds, building entrances and other public areas, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Some of the strictest ordinances are in California. The city of Santa Monica, for example, recently banned smoking at parks, beaches, ATM machines, theater lines, open-air restaurants and other outdoor locations.
"Throughout the country, cities and counties are looking at various laws against outdoor smoking, and some of the proposals are pretty drastic," Ott said. "The problem is that until now, there have been virtually no scientific data to justify such restrictions. In fact, our paper is the first study on outdoor smoking to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal."
Particulate matter
In the study, the researchers used portable electronic monitors to make precise measurements of toxic airborne particles emitted from cigarettes at 10 sites near the Stanford campus. "We wanted to quantify the potential level of exposure to outdoor tobacco smoke that could occur in everyday settings," Klepeis said. "To do this, we used five different, state-of-the-art instruments to measure secondhand smoke at parks, open-air cafes, sidewalks and outdoor pubs where smokers were present."
Each instrument was calibrated to measure an airborne pollutant known as particulate matter-2.5 (PM2.5), which consists of thousands of microscopic particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in width--about 30 times narrower than a human hair.
"PM2.5 is a toxic pollutant produced by cigarettes, wood-burning stoves, diesel engines and other forms of combustion," Ott explained. "It contains benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen, and many other toxic chemicals that can penetrate deep inside the lungs."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to PM2.5 can lead to serious health problems, including asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, nonfatal heart attacks and even premature death in people with heart or lung disease. The current EPA ambient air standard for PM2.5 is 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air averaged over 24 hours. Levels that exceed 35 micrograms are considered unhealthy "However, since tobacco smoke contains many toxic components, including carcinogens, it may be even less healthy than typical ambient air pollution," Klepeis noted.
Test results
To measure PM2.5 levels in secondhand smoke, the researchers placed the instruments near actual smokers in different open-air environments. "We also performed controlled experiments with burning cigarettes, which allowed us to make precise measurements of PM2.5 levels at different distances," Klepeis said.
The results were clear: The closer you are to an outdoor smoker, the higher your risk of exposure.
"A typical cigarette lasts about 10 minutes," Klepeis said. "We found that if you're within two feet downwind of a smoker, you may be exposed to pollutant concentrations that exceed 500 micrograms of PM2.5 over that 10-minute period. If you're exposed multiple times to multiple cigarettes over several hours in an outdoor pub, it would be possible to get a daily average of 35 micrograms or more, which exceeds the current EPA outdoor standard."
Outdoor tobacco smoke consists of brief plumes that sometimes exceed 1,000 micrograms, Klepeis added. "On the other hand, clean air typically contains less than 20 micrograms of PM2.5," he said. "Therefore, a person near an outdoor smoker might inhale a breath with 50 times more toxic material than in the surrounding unpolluted air."
However, the researchers found that air quality improved as they moved away from the smoker. "These results show what common sense would suggest--when you're within a few feet downwind of a smoker, you get exposed," Ott explained. "But likewise, when you go a little distance or stay upwind, the exposure goes way down. If there's just one smoker, and you can sit six feet away, you would have little problem. At the same time, if there are a lot of smokers nearby, you may be exposed to very high levels of secondhand smoke. So this thing that critics have been dismissing as trivial is not."
Added Klepeis: "If people realize that being near outdoor smokers can result in potentially large exposures to toxic air pollution, they may decide they do not wish to be exposed in a variety of outdoor settings. This realization may lead to an increased number of smoking bans in public locations."
Stanford University
Klepeis pointed to the 2006 Surgeon General's report, which found that even brief exposures to secondhand smoke may have adverse effects on the heart and respiratory systems and increase the severity of asthma attacks, especially in children.
"We were surprised to discover that being within a few feet of a smoker outdoors may expose you to air pollution levels that are comparable, on average, to indoor levels that we measured in previous studies of homes and taverns," said Wayne Ott, professor (consulting) of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and co-author of the JAWMA study. "For example, if you're at a sidewalk café, and you sit within 18 inches of a person who smokes two cigarettes over the course of an hour, your exposure to secondhand smoke could be the same as if you sat one hour inside a tavern with smokers. Based on our findings, a child in close proximity to adult smokers at a backyard party also could receive substantial exposure to secondhand smoke."
Unlike indoor tobacco smoke, which can persist for hours, the researchers found that outdoor smoke disappears rapidly when a cigarette is extinguished. "Our data also show that if you move about six feet away from an outdoor smoker, your exposure levels are much lower," Klepeis added.
The public has become increasingly concerned about the effects of outdoor smoking, Ott noted. More than 700 state and local governments have passed laws restricting outdoor smoking at playgrounds, building entrances and other public areas, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Some of the strictest ordinances are in California. The city of Santa Monica, for example, recently banned smoking at parks, beaches, ATM machines, theater lines, open-air restaurants and other outdoor locations.
"Throughout the country, cities and counties are looking at various laws against outdoor smoking, and some of the proposals are pretty drastic," Ott said. "The problem is that until now, there have been virtually no scientific data to justify such restrictions. In fact, our paper is the first study on outdoor smoking to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal."
Particulate matter
In the study, the researchers used portable electronic monitors to make precise measurements of toxic airborne particles emitted from cigarettes at 10 sites near the Stanford campus. "We wanted to quantify the potential level of exposure to outdoor tobacco smoke that could occur in everyday settings," Klepeis said. "To do this, we used five different, state-of-the-art instruments to measure secondhand smoke at parks, open-air cafes, sidewalks and outdoor pubs where smokers were present."
Each instrument was calibrated to measure an airborne pollutant known as particulate matter-2.5 (PM2.5), which consists of thousands of microscopic particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in width--about 30 times narrower than a human hair.
"PM2.5 is a toxic pollutant produced by cigarettes, wood-burning stoves, diesel engines and other forms of combustion," Ott explained. "It contains benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen, and many other toxic chemicals that can penetrate deep inside the lungs."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to PM2.5 can lead to serious health problems, including asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, nonfatal heart attacks and even premature death in people with heart or lung disease. The current EPA ambient air standard for PM2.5 is 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air averaged over 24 hours. Levels that exceed 35 micrograms are considered unhealthy "However, since tobacco smoke contains many toxic components, including carcinogens, it may be even less healthy than typical ambient air pollution," Klepeis noted.
Test results
To measure PM2.5 levels in secondhand smoke, the researchers placed the instruments near actual smokers in different open-air environments. "We also performed controlled experiments with burning cigarettes, which allowed us to make precise measurements of PM2.5 levels at different distances," Klepeis said.
The results were clear: The closer you are to an outdoor smoker, the higher your risk of exposure.
"A typical cigarette lasts about 10 minutes," Klepeis said. "We found that if you're within two feet downwind of a smoker, you may be exposed to pollutant concentrations that exceed 500 micrograms of PM2.5 over that 10-minute period. If you're exposed multiple times to multiple cigarettes over several hours in an outdoor pub, it would be possible to get a daily average of 35 micrograms or more, which exceeds the current EPA outdoor standard."
Outdoor tobacco smoke consists of brief plumes that sometimes exceed 1,000 micrograms, Klepeis added. "On the other hand, clean air typically contains less than 20 micrograms of PM2.5," he said. "Therefore, a person near an outdoor smoker might inhale a breath with 50 times more toxic material than in the surrounding unpolluted air."
However, the researchers found that air quality improved as they moved away from the smoker. "These results show what common sense would suggest--when you're within a few feet downwind of a smoker, you get exposed," Ott explained. "But likewise, when you go a little distance or stay upwind, the exposure goes way down. If there's just one smoker, and you can sit six feet away, you would have little problem. At the same time, if there are a lot of smokers nearby, you may be exposed to very high levels of secondhand smoke. So this thing that critics have been dismissing as trivial is not."
Added Klepeis: "If people realize that being near outdoor smokers can result in potentially large exposures to toxic air pollution, they may decide they do not wish to be exposed in a variety of outdoor settings. This realization may lead to an increased number of smoking bans in public locations."
Stanford University
Secondhand Smoke Current Events and Secondhand Smoke News RSSCigarettes Harbor Many Bacteria Harmful to Human Health
Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with bacteria, including some known to cause disease in people, concludes a new international study conducted by a University of Maryland environmental health researcher and microbial ecologists at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.
Study raises concerns about outdoor second-hand smoke
Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard.
90 percent of Africans are not protected by smoke-free laws
As African nations are poised to undergo the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries, nearly 90 percent of people on the continent remain without meaningful protection from secondhand smoke, according to a new report released at a regional cancer conference today.
Global death toll: 1 million premature babies every year
More than one million infants die each year because they are born too early, according to the just released White Paper, The Global and Regional Toll of Preterm Birth.
A consistent decline in heart attack rates following the implementation of smoking bans
Strongly enforced legislation to restrict smoking produces rapid and substantial reductions in community rates of heart attack, according to a meta-analysis published today in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.
Rates of secondhand smoke exposure high among college students
Secondhand smoke (SHS) is not only a nuisance, but a potential health concern for many college students, and administrators should be taking steps to reduce students' exposure, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Cigarette smoke may rob children of needed antioxidants
Children exposed to cigarette smoke have lower levels of antioxidants, which help the body defend itself against many biological stresses.
Survey research shows many Americans are aware of importance of voice care
According to a recent survey by the American Academy of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), the association representing America's ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctors, many Americans believe that "keeping their voice healthy" is the biggest obstacle a singer on American Idol has to overcome, over dealing with the judges or overcoming stage fright.
Blood tests reveal tobacco smoke residues in non-smoking New Yorkers
More than half of non-smoking New Yorkers have elevated levels of cotinine in their blood - meaning that they were recently exposed to toxic second-hand smoke in concentrations high enough to leave residues in the body.
Avoiding secondhand smoke during pregnancy
Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) commonly called secondhand smoke, can harm a developing fetus and may account for complications during pregnancy and birth.
More Secondhand Smoke Current Events and Secondhand Smoke News Articles
 |
Secondhand Smoke by Patty Friedmann (Author) A gorgeous tragicomic novel of working-class New Orleans. Zib and Wilson Bailey--Jerusha's two grown kids--think the thick cloud of cigarette smoke enveloping their mother is what probably killed their father. Certainly the toxicity of Jerusha Bailey's dark and cynical attitudes has driven her children far from home. Wilson has escaped to Chicago, married, converted to Judaism, become a professor of Organic Evolution, all of which earns his mother's scorn. She doesn't think much of her daughter either: Zib, almost forty, unmarried and directionless, has made it only as far as the Florida Panhandle, where she's the assistant manager at the local Winn-Dixie and must fight off her boss's affections. So obliviously isolated is Jerusha, only one person is left in her sights: Dustin... |
|
Secondhand Smoke: A Tribute to Frank Marino by Various Artists | |
 |
Secondhand Smoke by First Things Your 24/7 seminar on bioethics and the importance of being human. Kindle blogs are fully downloaded onto your Kindle so you can read them even when you're not wirelessly connected. And unlike RSS readers which often only provide headlines, blogs on Kindle give you full text content and images, and are updated wirelessly throughout the day. |
 |
Secondhand Smoke by Karen E Olson (Author) Smoke, rubble, and the body of an unidentified woman are all that remains of a favorite New Haven eatery. Missing is the restaurant's owner, a man known as much for his perfect penne as he is for his hand in an illegal gambling operation. Crime reporter Annie Seymour can't pass up a golden opportunity for the perfect story and the chance to pound the pavement she knew as a child. But for Annie, home is not where the heart is, and a cold reception is all that greets her inquiring ways. To complicate matters, Annie's father, who is a friend of the missing man, is suddenly under foot. As Annie connects the dots that point to an elusive mob ring, she must confront the fact that she's become an outsider in her own neighborhood--and that she may be its next victim. |
![Second-Hand Smoke [Explicit]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ARJJo5VpL._SL160_.jpg) |
Second-Hand Smoke [Explicit] Sublime (Primary Contributor) |
 |
LI-11 Secondhand Smoke is Just Sharing the Love Flip Top Lighter by 2Bhip Secondhand Smoke is Just Sharing the Love Flip Top Lighter Brand New Lighter!! Lighter Size: 1.5" X 2.5" |
 |
Secondhand Smoke: Just Say Know DVD by AIMS Multimedia Appealing young people address their peers about the types of poisons and carcinogens contained in secondhand cigarette smoke as well as how these chemicals can cause health problems in a growing child. |
|
Indoor Air Quality Regulatory Compliance Training Kit DVD (VHS avail.) by Marcom MARCOM's Regulatory Compliance Kits provide all of the materials needed to promote and conduct a safety meeting. Each Kit contains a DVD program, 5 posters and 30 booklets. DVDs come with an easy-to-use leader's guide, scheduling and attendance forms, and an employee quiz. Available in English and Spanish. It is all around us, and we breathe it every day to stay alive. But how "clean" is the air that we breathe? While we know that it contains oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, there may be other substances in the air around us that we do not know about... such as dust, mites, spores, bacteria and hazardous fumes. MARCOM's training products on Indoor Air Quality show employees the potentially harmful effects of poor air quality, and will help them prevent, identify and correct air quality... | |
 |
Smoking: Whats In It for You? Poster by J&B Products, Inc. Highly visible in any room or hallway, this colorful poster contains harsh truths about the effects of tobacco use and exposure. Many poisonous chemicals present in cigarettes are depicted alongside facts about tobaccos addictive nature. Ideal for health classes, guidance programs, and cessation clinics, the poster is aligned with National Standards. |
 |
Second Hand Smoke by Sublime Most posthumous albums are shrouded in a sense of morbid nostalgia and grim curiosity. In Sublime's case, there was also some cruel irony to contend with: the California nuevo-punk outfit's promising self-titled major-label debut and commercial breakout was released barely a month after frontman Brad Nowell's death from a heroin overdose--and their de facto demise. But such was the Long Beach band's longtime following that raiding the vaults, however sparse, was inevitable. Released 18 months after Nowell's death, Second Hand Smoke more than lived up to its title, cobbling together a collection of outtakes from their debut and padding them out with (sometimes multiple) remixes of old tracks like "Doin' Time," "April 29," and the Gwen Stefani duet, "Saw Red." There's a standout cover of... |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |