At 10:50 AM -0400 6/28/06, Stephen Black wrote:
Anyway, I checked PubMed, and there's surprisingly little there. If second-hand smoke does
cause health hazards, there should be a correlation between exposure and health problems
(as a necessary but not sufficient condition). This is does seem to be the case, but mostly it
seems to be in New Zealand.
I downloaded the report.
The three pages of references in the executive summary did
include some on second hand smoke (other key words would be 'passive
smoking' and 'environmental tobacco smoke'). The full report has
about ten pages of references -- haven't waded through that.
Many of the studies are from the '80s and '90's.
One recent reference from PubMed:
Tob Control. 2006 Jun;15(3):242-6.
Decline in respiratory symptoms in service workers five months after a public smoking ban.
Eagan TM, Hetland J, Aaro LE.
Department of Internal Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.[EMAIL PROTECTED]
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a total ban on smoking indoors in restaurants and other hospitality business premises in Norway, on respiratory symptoms among workers in the industry. METHODS: Phone interviews with 1525 employees in the hospitality business were conducted immediately before the enacting of the law. In a follow-up study five months later, 906 of the workers from the baseline sample participated. Questions were asked on demographic variables, passive smoking exposure, personal smoking, attitudes towards the law, and five respiratory symptoms. Change in symptom prevalence was analysed with McNemar's test and with analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures. RESULTS: The prevalence of all five symptoms declined after the ban; for morning cough from 20.6% to 16.2% (p < 0.01); for daytime cough from 23.2% to 20.9%; for phlegm cough from 15.3% to 11.8% (p < 0.05); for dyspnoea from 19.2% to 13.0% (p < 0.01); and for wheezing from 9.0% to 7.8%. ANOVA showed that the largest decline in symptom prevalence was seen among workers who themselves gave up smoking, and subjects with a positive attitude towards the law before it took effect. CONCLUSION: A significant decrease in respiratory symptoms among service industry workers was found five months after the enacting of a public smoking ban.
PMID: 16728756 [PubMed - in process]
Searching on "passive smoking dose
response" came up with:
Respir Res. 2005 Feb 8;6(1):13.
Extent of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and its dose-response relation to respiratory health among adults.
Maziak W, Ward KD, Rastam S, Mzayek F, Eissenberg T.
Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies, Aleppo, Syria. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
BACKGROUND: There is a dearth of standardized studies examining exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and its relationship to respiratory health among adults in developing countries. METHODS: In 2004, the Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies (SCTS) conducted a population-based survey using stratified cluster sampling to look at issues related to environmental health of adults aged 18-65 years in Aleppo (2,500,000 inhabitants). Exposure to ETS was assessed from multiple self-reported indices combined into a composite score (maximum 22), while outcomes included both self-report (symptoms/diagnosis of asthma, bronchitis, and hay fever), and objective indices (spirometric assessment of FEV1 and FVC). Logistic and linear regression analyses were conducted to study the relation between ETS score and studied outcomes, whereby categorical (tertiles) and continuous scores were used respectively, to evaluate the association between ETS exposure and respiratory health, and explore the dose-response relationship of the association. RESULTS: Of 2038 participants, 1118 were current non-smokers with breath CO levels < or = 10 ppm (27.1% men, mean age 34.7 years) and were included in the current analysis. The vast majority of study participants were exposed to ETS, whereby only 3.6% had ETS score levels < or = 2. In general, there was a significant dose-response pattern in the relationship of ETS score with symptoms of asthma, hay fever, and bronchitis, but not with diagnoses of these outcomes. The magnitude of the effect was in the range of twofold increases in the frequency of symptoms reported in the high exposure group compared to the low exposure group. Severity of specific respiratory problems, as indicated by frequency of symptoms and health care utilization for respiratory problems, was not associated with ETS exposure. Exposure to ETS was associated with impaired lung function, indicative of airflow limitation, among women only. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence for the alarming extent of exposure to ETS among adult non-smokers in Syria, and its dose-response relationship with respiratory symptoms of infectious and non-infectious nature. It calls for concerted efforts to increase awareness of this public health problem and to enforce regulations aimed at protecting non-smokers.
So, there does seem to be some data out there.
--
The best argument against Intelligent
Design is that fact that
people believe in it.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
people believe in it.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
*
http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~pkbrando/ *
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