Facts
Why smoke-free?
What is Secondhand Smoke?
Is Secondhand Smoke Just a Nuisance or Is It Harmful?
Are People of Color Disproportionately in Danger?
Is Secondhand Smoke Harmful to Children?
Am I Safe In a Non-Smoking Section or Ventilated Area?
What is the Economic Impact of a Smoke-Free Restaurant or Business?
What communities are smoke free?
What is Secondhand Smoke?
Secondhand smoke is also called:
- Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS)
- Passive Smoking
- Involuntary Smoking
- Side Stream Smoke
Secondhand smoke is the smoke that comes from a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar and the smoke exhaled by a smoker. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke absorb the same nicotine and other harmful chemicals into the body as smokers do.
Is Secondhand Smoke Just a Nuisance or Is It Harmful?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified secondhand smoke as a Group A carcinogen, which means that there is sufficient evidence that secondhand smoke causes cancer in humans. Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer.
Six of the sixty chemicals are:
- Cyanide – used in the gas chamber
- Ammonia – used to clean floors and toilets
- Formaldehyde – used in biological preservation
- Arsenic – used to poison rodents
- Carbon monoxide – found in car exhaust fumes
- Benzene – used in industrial solvents
Environmental Protection Agency studies of human exposure to air pollutants indicate that indoor levels of pollutants often are significantly higher than outdoor levels, and the Science Advisory Board has consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health.
Secondhand smoke kills over 53,000 nonsmokers in the United States each year.3
The chemicals in secondhand smoke can cause deaths related to:
- Heart Attack – Secondhand smoke causes blood vessels to narrow and harden. It makes the blood thicken or clot causing a restriction of blood to the heart, resulting in a heart attack.
- Cancer – Secondhand smoke can increase the risk of getting lung cancer and nose cancer.
- Asthma – Children exposed to secondhand smoke can get asthma or preexisting asthma may be worsened.
Are People of Color Disproportionately in Danger?
According to the National Cancer Institute data, people of color have high rates of occupational exposure to secondhand smoke. Hispanic, Native Americans, and African-Americans are less likely to be protected under smoke-free workplace policies since they are more likely to work in industries that enjoy the least amount of protection from smoking in the workplace – service, hospitality, and labor industries.4
There is a 50 percent increase in lung cancer risk among food service workers due to secondhand smoke exposure in the workplace. Levels of secondhand smoke are 1.6 to 2.0 times higher in a restaurant than in office workplaces. Levels in bars are 3.9 to 6.1 times higher than in offices. For a nonsmoker working a 10-hour shift in a bar, it is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.5In a national public opinion poll conducted in 2002, researchers found that compared to other groups, Hispanics and African-American voters are more likely to believe that:
- It is the right of nonsmokers to breathe clean air where they shop, work and eat.
- Secondhand smoke is more of a health hazard than an annoyance.
- Waiters and other restaurant workers have no choice about workplace exposure and deserve the same protections as other workers.
The same poll found that support for safe indoor air in workplaces, public places and restaurants is significantly stronger among African-American and Hispanic voters than for other voters.6
Is Secondhand Smoke Harmful to Children?
Children of parents who smoke have more frequent respiratory infections, more respiratory symptoms, and slower development of lung function as the lung matures, when compared to children of nonsmoking parents.
Secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections – such as pneumonia and bronchitis – in children younger than 18 months of age, which results in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations annually.7
Each year, asthma in up to 1,000,000 children is made more severe by exposure to secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke is the single largest remaining risk contributing to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) after allowing infants to sleep on their stomachs. A 2002 study found that the cotine (metabolized nicotine) in lung tissue of infants who died from SIDS “tended to have higher concentrations of nicotine in their lungs than control children, regardless of whether smoking was reported.”8
Am I Safe In a Non-Smoking Section or Ventilated Area?
Separation of smokers from nonsmokers within the same airspace may reduce, but cannot eliminate, the exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. Sitting in a non-smoking section of a restaurant for an hour is like smoking one and one-half cigarettes.9
Ventilation systems can clear cigarette smoke and odor, but the technology cannot eliminate health dangers. Secondhand smoke is made up of thousands of chemicals; many are invisible and odorless carcinogens.
Even an Ionic Breeze® Quadra air purifier ad said: “No air cleaner can protect against the harmful effects of secondhand tobacco smoke. Clean air begins with a smoke-free environment.”
What is the Economic Impact of a Smoke-Free Restaurant or Business?
Studies of sales tax data in 81 localities in six states consistently demonstrate that restricting smoking in restaurants has a positive or neutral effect on revenues.10
According to one study, hotel revenues increased in Los Angeles, California; New York City, New York; Mesa, Arizona; and the state of Utah where smoke-free laws were passed.11
In the Zagat Survey 2005 America’s Top Restaurant guide that covers 1,383 of the best restaurants in 41 major markets, four out of five surveyors think smoking should be banned in restaurants. Twenty-six percent said they would eat out more often if a ban were put into effect, while three percent said they would eat out less often. In cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles where smoking has already been banned, the support is stronger with more than 70 percent of diners saying they would eat out.
Since California launched its tobacco control program 15 years ago, 99 percent of Californians approve of the state's smoke-free workplace law and smoking among youth continues to decline. According to the 2004 California Student Tobacco Survey released in January 2005 by the California Department of Health Services (CDHS), 13 percent of high school students in California smoked in 2004, compared with 21 percent in 2000.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the cost savings of eliminating secondhand smoke in the workplace to be between $35 to $66 billion per year, by reducing premature deaths and tobacco-related illness.
What communities are smoke free?
Many SC municipalities have chosen to go smoke free, including:
Sullivan's Island, Greenville, Columbia, Beaufort County, Blufton, Hilton Head Island, Aiken County, Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Surfside Beach
Smoke free states: 1) California, 2) Delaware, 3) New York, 4) Connecticut, 5) Maine, 6) Massachusetts, and 7) Rhode Island
Smoke free nations: 1) New Zealand, 2) Norway, 3) Ireland, 4) Uganda, 5) Sweden, and 6) Bhutan
Canada: 10 out of 13 provinces are smoke free.