Regulating Secondhand Smoke
Jan. 31, 2007 — -- Some things are hard to believe, like a prediction that Martians will land in Atlanta tomorrow.
Even harder to accept is the fact that some folks, including people in positions of substantial responsibility -- such as mayors, governors and other politicians -- don't believe that exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful.
It is. The evidence is very clear that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause illness and death.
Despite all of that evidence, we still seem to have barriers in place that prevent us from enacting laws that would protect those of us who are non-smokers (and I would also include former smokers) from the harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke.
One remaining issue regarding the harms of secondhand smoke has been the question of how much lung cancer risk exists for non-smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace.
A study reported today in the American Journal of Public Health answers that question and takes us one step closer to understanding how dangerous secondhand smoke can be.
As the authors point out, most research on the topic of secondhand smoke and the risk of developing lung cancer has been done with the non-smoking spouses of smokers.
Where we don't have a clear picture is the lung cancer risk you face if you are a non-smoker and work in a place that permits smoking. For many folks, that means in restaurants, bars and casinos, among other locations.
To answer this question, the researchers examined a number of scientific papers published on the topic of lung cancer risk and secondhand smoke in the workplace.
They took the information from those papers and pooled the numbers so they could get an idea of whether non-smoking workers in those workplaces faced an increased risk of getting lung cancer.
The answer, simply stated, was "Yes."
When combining all of the papers and all of the subjects studied as part of those 22 reports, the researchers found there was a 24 percent increased risk of developing lung cancer in non-smoking employees who were exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace.
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