Surgeon general: No safe level of secondhand smoke

[LostinVA]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Separate smoking sections don't cut it: Only smoke-free buildings and public places truly protect nonsmokers from the hazards of breathing in other people's tobacco smoke, says a long-awaited surgeon general's report.

Some 126 million nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke, what U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona repeatedly calls "involuntary smoking" that puts people at increased risk of death from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.

Moreover, there is no risk-free level of exposure to someone else's drifting smoke, declares the report issued Tuesday -- a conclusion sure to fuel already growing efforts at public smoking bans nationwide. Fourteen states have passed what are considered comprehensive smoke-free workplace laws, those that include restaurants and bars.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/06/27/involuntary.smoking.ap/index.html


:popcorn:

[SteppingRazor]

1. .

:smoke:

[Mojorabbit]

2. We have a surgeon general?

Quietest one in years if so.

[LostinVA]

3. Tell me about it.....

[Bandit]

5. and I think he just stepped on his dick

I predict we will hear the howls at even new decibels. Why do people feel they have the right to subject others to their noxious fumes? They wish to smoke in private, that is their right but when they want to subject others to their foul poisons something needs to be done.

[Quantess]

53. That, and it stinks too.

I get irritated when I leave the house with newly washed hair, and fresh, clean clothes, then sit in a cloud of secondhand smoke in an indoor establishment, and come home smelling like an ashtray.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "young children who can't escape their parents' addiction..."

But the surgeon general is especially concerned about young children who can't escape their parents' addiction in search of cleaner air: Just over one in five children is exposed to secondhand smoke at home, where workplace bans don't reach. Those children are at increased risk of SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome; lung infections such as pneumonia; ear infections; and more severe asthma. (Full story) http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/06/20/parental.smoking.reut/index.html

Parental smoking a threat to kids' lungs, new study confirms
Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Posted: 12:19 p.m. EDT (16:19 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- 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.

It is difficult to tell, Neuberger noted, whether the impairment of lung function resulting from prenatal and early life exposure is permanent, given that many individuals with parents and siblings who smoke will have started smoking themselves by their teen years.
***
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.

***
The findings are a "stark reminder" that legal efforts to reduce exposure to cigarette smoke in workplaces aren't protecting the group of people at greatest risk from passive smoking, young children, Drs. Mark D. Eisner of the University of California, San Francisco and Francesco Forastiere of the Rome E Health Authority in Italy write in an editorial accompanying the study.

[Warpy]

6. This is true, but how intrusive do we want government to be?

Parents need to be informed by their pediatricians about things that cig smoke in the home can cause, from glue ear to SIDS. We don't want government intruding into that home, though, do we? Parents are responsible for their children and their choices, and I can think of no worse punishment for a smoking parent who has been fully informed of the danger of smoking around infants to find his or her infant dead in the crib.

I grew up with smoking parents, and I spent my childhood outdoors or in my room with a towel stuffed under the door. I have had a lifelong allergy to cig smoke, something that neatly torpedoed any chance for a social life. I hate smoking.

However, the government should not have the right to intrude into people's homes to proscribe legal behavior within it, not even the home I grew up in.

Life is risk and sometimes informing people of the risk is the best we can do.

[JesterCS]

7. I believe

outside, and in the privacy of your home is ok.

Indoors in public should be banned.

[lindisfarne]

26. Very intrusive, if parents are poisoning their kids. I suffered from this

as a kid, despite telling my relatives it was dangerous for both me and them. I wonder how much less lung capacity and other effects I have as a result of 2nd-hand exposure.

[LostinVA]

43. The government should have that right if the safety of minors

is truly in jeopardy. I also grew up in a house with a chain smoking father, and my sister and I carry that legacy with us every day. That was the 60's and 70's, so we don't blame our Dad. But, nowadays, people DO know better, and they still do it. If they won't smoke outside, or quit smoking in the car with their kids, then yeah -- something should be done. Adults have the chance to leave, the kids don't.

The government intrudes in many, many ways into people's "rights" to parent however the hell they ant. Car seats, seat belts, vaccines, schooling, marriage, etc.

It does take a village to raise kids.

[LostinVA]

8. kick

[snooper2]

9. hmmm....

I should start marketing these.... :)

[onehandle]

10. Duh. This is new news? nt

[LostinVA]

14. To quite a few people, yes

I've even read posts on DU scoffing at the dangers of second hand smoke.

[Kingshakabobo]

19. I can't wait for the tobacco industry funded research to get posted here.

[Raine]

29. Yeah, actually

it is pretty BIG new news even more of a milestone than in the 1960's when cigarettes were first condemned as being as unhealthy.

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. No safe level of Auto exhaust either

No safe level of auto exhaust, electric generation exhaust, home furnace etc.

Trying to find a safe level of second-hand smoke is a fools errend. The question is what level produces a risk no greater than all the other crap we put into the air everyday.

[LostinVA]

44. KIds aren't forced to sit in front of a car's exhaust in their living room

Several posters on DU always bring up the auto exhaust strawman... and it is a strawman. We all know pollutants in our environment need to be controlled much better. It's why I paid more than I could maybe afford and got a car that could run on biodiesel. But, secondhand smoke is a different matter, and you and the other posters know it. Yelling about exhaust strawman doesn't negate secondhand smoke, although you all act like it does,

ANY smoking in an enclosed area is bad for those around it. Tobacco is literally filled with poisons, and any parent that subjects their minor children to this is irresponsible at best. SEcondhand smoking is REAL.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

12. Here in NYC smokers are very inconsiderate

they will just smoke in your face, on the sidewalk, without regard to those who, like me, get physically sick from their smoke.

I understand those who think that smoking outside is ok, but in a city or other heavily busy passageway or outdoor area it may be hard for many people to escape from second-hand smoke.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

16. It's not pure inconsideration

I smoke, and I live in NYC.

As you mentioned, it is very busy and crowded here. I always try to find a low-traffic area to have my cigarette when I take a break at work or if I'm out at a bar, but frequently those are really, really hard to find.

[zreosumgame]

23. try not planting yourself downwind of them?

or do you simply enjoy carping and passivie-aggrssivly manipulating folks? Seriously there are to major rules to being civilived;

1) try not to be too offensive to others around you

2) MOST IMPORTANT: Try not to be so dammed easily offended.

[Kittycat]

34. I would be offended! Kill yourself, not me!

I've been watching my grandfather slowly and painfully die of Emphazema for the past 16 years. He quite smoking 8 years before that. I'm horribley allergic to it, to the point that my eyes water uncontrollabley and swell shut, my ears begin to itch and it affects my hearing from swelling, and I can't breath through my nose. If all that isn't bad enough, do you think I want to get cancer from inhaling a smokers toxic fumes? You know the toxicity even stays in their clothing for some period of time. Try being a good citizen and riding the train into the city, to cut down on auto exhaust - and get stuck behind a smoker. I always want to say, "Excuse me, do you know how nasty you smell? You stink so bad, I'm trying to refrain from puking all over you".

In addition, my husband is an asthmatic, and my son was on oxygen (preemie) until last fall. Do you honestly think we want to walk past smokers, while out trying to enjoy a day at the park? When I go into the city, I have to plan my route down a sidewalk, just avoid people like that smoke. It's like an obsticle course. And it never fails that I get some inconsiderate person that will walk past, and blow right towards my face. Disgusting pigs!

Smokers should stay in their garages, or open a smokers club - but stay the heck away from other people if you intend on killing yourself like that. It DOES affect others around you.

[devilgrrl]

13. Interesting that this is the only environmental issue taken seriously...

if only this much outrage over vehicle exhaust and industrial pollution... second hand smoke isn't melting the polar ice cap.

[LifeDuringWartime]

36. baby steps?

:shrug:

hopefully not too late

[Gormy Cuss]

15. I wish they'd make tobacco a prescription-only drug and be done with it.

:popcorn:

[onehandle]

21. Who'd prescribe it? Undertakers? nt

[Gormy Cuss]

25. Think methadone.

If tobacco products were banned outright, some current nicotine addicts wouldn't be able to go cold turkey.

I was being fascetious in the earlier post. We do seem to be banning cigarettes one place at a time.

[LostinVA]

45. I agree -- read Kessler's book about tobacco

The very, very Republican ex-FDA Kessler.

He thinks tobacco should be banned, but that we need to take a generation or two to do it. He advocates this: NO ADVERTISING. Period. All cigarettes will be in a plain wrapper with NO brand name in t. They will only be available to people 18 or older, from an ABC-like store. And, no grandfathering. It only applies to people 18 or older NOW. No additives or extra nicotine allowed in the tobacco. Government subsides to help the farmers earn a better living -- hemp, etc. I can't remember the exact time, but it was like 30-50 years, and tobacco would no longer be sold in the US. He's a doctor, btw, and actually thinks Big Tobacco is way more evil than the plant... he says how, like decaffeinated coffee, the weed eed can have its nicotine level taken down to a non-addictive level... so, people wouldn't need to smoke. Ha!

Great book. "A Question of Intent."

on edit: he also said the government should pay for programs to help people quit.

[heidler1]

17. This news will probably clinch the coming demise of

Public smoking here in AZ. It's coming up and approved to be on the ballot. Which IMO is good.

[Kingshakabobo]

18. Cue the irrelevant comparisons ......3,2,1...... bla, bla bla drinking...

......bla,bla,bla auto exhaust.....

[OneBlueSky]

20. my county has just banned smoking in all public parks . . .

owned by the county . . . that's going just a little overboard, imo . . .

[LostinVA]

46. Why?

[redqueen]

22. Why does anyone smoke at all anymore?

It's so nasty and stinky... I just don't get it.

I did it as a teen, because my parents did and my friends did and I wanted to fit in.

A few years later I realized I was *paying* to jeopardize my health and stink up my clothes... and for what?

[Raine]

30. I don't get it either

I tried it when I was high school too (this was in the late 60's before anyone knew it was so bad) cause I wanted to look hip and rebellious but I hated it and found I would rather take my lunch money for actual food or better yet clothes than literally burning it up. I can't understand why nowadays anyone would even start such a stupid and dangerous habit. x(

[megatherium]

38. It never appealed to me. And it killed my dad (lung cancer). nt

[coalition_unwilling]

24. Surgeon general: No safe level of SUV emissions exposure (n/t)

[lindisfarne]

27. Outlaw tobacco; substitute nicotine patches and gum instead for the

addicts. We've made drunk driving and being drunk in public crimes; why can't we make being under the smoking in public a crime? Or at least, smoking anywhere in public or in the presence of children in a private home should be a crime, as that is harmful to others (including 2nd hand smoke wafting out of one apartment into another) - "harmful to others" is why drunk driving is illegal; 2nd hand smoke is harmful to others as well.

[LostinVA]

47. David Kessler's book "A Question of Intent" talks about that n/t

[Bonobo]

28. Cigarette tax should help pay for subisdizing of patches/gum.

I'm a cigarette addict. I smoked 20 years or so. I quit many times.

Right now I have not smoked a cigarette for a month or so. I hope to remain cigarette free, but I know how easy it is to get addicted again.

Anyway, to all the Anti-Smoking Nazis on this thread, I'd like to offer a big rigid finger. Thanks for your lack of sympathy. Cigarettes are HIGHLY addictive and yes, poisonous! Victims deserve reasonable access to medication that will help them quit. It should be subsidized by someone.

[LostinVA]

48. A month is great! Keep at it!

I smoked over two packs a day for well over a decade, and it sucks, doesn't it? More addictive than heroin, and the damned companies add EXTRA NICOTINE to the cigarettes. You can do it.

I quit cold turkey eleven years ago, and haven't wanted one for years. However, if I had one, I'd probably be smoking two packs a day again within a week.

I understand. I'm not anti-smokers, I'm anti tobacco... it just drives me nuts when smokers make excuses for secondhand smoke, etc. I never did that, because I'm not stupid. I think you're misreading many on here -- we are ex smokers and have enormous sympathy... but not everyone is as considerate or self aware as you.

And yeah, government should pay for smoking cessation programs, patches, whatever works for a person. I completely agree.

Good luck!!!

[fshrink]

31. It is so touching to see

so many officials so sincerely concerned with our well-being. There is no risk-free level of exposure to our leaders' concerns about our "health", what we do, who we see, what we say and think, who we sleep with, what we do on Sunday morning and about pretty much every single aspect of our existence.

[skids]

32. OK, I'll bite...

We have this:

Regular exposure to someone else's smoke increases by up to 30 percent the risk of a nonsmoker getting heart disease or lung cancer, Carmona found.

And we have this:

There is no safe level of secondhand smoke -- even a few minutes inhaling someone else's smoke harms nonsmokers, he found

Okay, so if the worst regular exposure you can get increases your chances of catching lung cancer or heart disease by up to 30%, by how much does "even a few minutes" increase it? By about the odds of getting struck by lightning, or more somewhere on the level of the odds of being eaten by a hammerhead shark?

Just wondering.

I guess I'll just throw that onto my "wonder pile" which includes such things as "Why don't we address indoor air quality as a whole problem, instead of being myopic about smoking?" and "There are plenty of VOCs and mold spores in that restaurant that can kill you just as fast -- where's the public outcry about that?" and "Why has nobody strangled one of the Fanta girls yet?" and "Who still listens to Bon Jovi?" and "Why do people still insist on using Windows?" and... well let's just say the pile is pretty high at this point.

[babylonsister]

33. Do I smell a new wedge issue for the repugs? nt

[unblock]

35. cigarettes per se are not addictive, it's nicotine that's addictive

there are several ways to get nicotine that don't involve second-hand health risks: patch, gum, chew, e.g.

i fail to understand how people get all up in arms about their "right" to spew concinogens, toxins, and allergens into crowds when several reasonable accomodations exist.

[LostinVA]

49. Good point n/t

[nebenaube]

37. this is so stupid...

Hey folks... When they nuked Nevada back in the late forties; they contaminated the entire eastern seaboard with fallout. This bull about second-hand smoke is just part of the plausible deniablity for increased cancer in the general population!

[megatherium]

39. Note that the report says that second-hand smoke causes

46,000 premature deaths from heart disease, and 3,000 premature deaths from cancer, per year. So I'm afraid what's bull here is your theory about fallout -- second-hand smoke really is a serious health problem, and I'm fed up with pro-smoking people blowing smoke (literally and figuratively) in my face! :)

[nebenaube]

40. but...

The causes of heart disease are hereditary predispostion, lack of exercise, poor diet, obesity and chronic dehydration combined with smoking which you might note has reached epidemic proportions. I don't blow smoke in your face so back off.

[megatherium]

41. I imagine the CDC statisticians know what they're doing.

They're the ones saying that 46,000 premature cardiac deaths are due to environmental tobacco smoke.

[LostinVA]

51. *yawn*

[LostinVA]

50. It's not bull

Good strawman, too.

[SnowGoose]

42. And what the CNN article doesn't even mention:

is the dawning realization that deaths due to infectious diseases attributable to CS exposure may actually rival those from CS-caused cancer.

It turns out that cigarette smoke makes your immune system not work so good.

We don't know why yet, but the American Thoracic Society (ATS ~ the primary scientific organization devoted to study of pulmonary pathology and related issues including smoking) is going to have a special session on the subject at next year's meeting.

So when they say it's bad for you, most of the time they're not even taking this huge issue into consideration.

[Mojorabbit]

52. What gets me is this surgeon general

has not made a peep that I have heard of in years and now comes up with this. How about that mercury exposure from pollution from relaxed emission laws is really really bad for children, or polluted water is a bad health risk. No, you won't hear that cause it might upset those in power. I say, Phhhht.

[wordpix2]

54. how about secondhand diesel emissions from trucks? Cancer vehicles

is what I call them, as well as cars that need to have their emission systems overhauled.