I found the CRS (Congressional Research Service) report on ETS (Evironmental
Tobacco Smoke) to be worth a complete reading.
It can be found at:
http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/crs11-95.htm
They concluded that the science is very definitely not conclusive, and it
appears that the studies that they felt needed to be done have not yet been
done. There is a lot of interesting reading to be found by simply googling CRS
ETS.
I am a fanatical ex-smoker (16 years, 6 months, 27 days) and would like to see
it banned, but it seems clear that earlier SG and EPA reports have jumped the
gun. Perhaps this one has, too.
Bill Scott
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/28/06 2:59 PM >>>
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 *
* http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~pkbrando/ *
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