Tobacco Documents Online

_. r~ `4%" ' .. . .. . . ~,..> . . . ._ ..IacWIMwBan\ n, ft~ F~a~a> Nonsmokers Try To Clear the Air . ,v,/X..Lhp wY TiKew ByJANE E. BRODY A LOS ANGELES businessman asked the airline agent to give him a seat "as far as possible from the smoking sections be- cause smoke makes me cough." A woman asked the headwaiter at an ele- gant New York restaurant to °please tell the gentlemen at the next table to put out their cigarettes or move to a dif- ferent table." The smoke, she said, irri- tated her eyes and throat and was ruin- ing her dinner. smokers' are begtnning to speak out. Growing numbers of nonsmokers are trying to rid their envi ronment of a per- vasive pollutant that is a general nui- sance to most and a genuine health haz- ard to some. In dozens of communities, their individual efforts are now sup- ported by legislation that restricts smoking in public places, either by banning it entirely or by-segregating smokers the way airlines and railroads did years ago. . , , . A broad referendum- to segregate smokers from nonsmokers in public buildings was defeated by voters in California this month, in part because the tobacco industry spent more than $5 million to fight it. But more and more such legislation will undoubtedly be considered i n the near f uture. Although inhaling the smoke from other people's cigarettes has not yet been shown to cause heart disease or lung cancer, many real and potential hazards of passive smoking have been delineated by researchers here and Personal Health Throughout the country, 'passive_ abroad. Passive smoking can injure the health of nonsmoking wives, chil- dren, infants and unborn babies, as well as people with chronic heart and lung diseases and allergies to tobacco smoke. Some studies have been criticized for ' their use of artificial environments in which the smoke levels exceed usual normal situations, but most study set- tings bear a reasonable resemblance to reality and certain facts about passive smoking are undisputed. The American Lung Association points out, for example, that two-thirds of the smoke from a burning cigarette enters not the smoker's lungs but the general environment. A smoker in- Confinuedon PageC5

C ~Personal Health CnnttnuedFmm Pnge Cl hales an avemge of 2.f secunds per ciga- r<tte. but his <igareue bums for about ISminutes, -. In many respects, the sidestream smoke, which escapes into the air be- tween puffs, ls worse than the mmn- stream smoke that the smoker inhales directly. Sidestream smoke has more cadmium, lwitt the amount of tar and nicvtine, three times more of the can- cercausmg agent ],Mbemopyrene, nvx times nwre carbon monoxide and 50 timcs more ammonia than mair, streamsmoke. .. Sidestream smoke alsocontains such naxioLLS suhstence5 as nltrogen dioxide (an irritaung gas that can tlamage the lungs), formaldchyde, hydrogen cya- nide, arsenic and hydrogen sulfide (the chemical that smells like rotten eggs). In addition to sideslream smoke, the nmsmoker gets the residual main- slream smoke that the smnker exhales. ibeair is likely to be heavily polluted braayenclosedspacewheresmokingis permitted. At a typical campus pacty, (orexample,thelevelofparticulatesin Ihe air from cigarette smoke is 0 times above the OnitM States air quality aundard. ARer spending 3] minutes in s smoky rwrq the no smoker has a higher than tmul heart rate and blootl pressure and the level of carbon monoxide that aacumulates in his blood could impair his ability to judge time intervals or distinguish relativc brtghtness, such as from oncoming cars. Studies suggest, in fact, that a nonsmoker in a very amoky room could inhale enough nico- line and carbon monoxide in an hour to equal the effects of his having smoked one cigarette himself. Most urban non- smukers have measurxble xmounts of ttimttne In their bady fluids, and the tady way it gets there is through paSw sivesmoking. Animal studies svggest that exm sure to "secvnd-hand" smoke ca cause illness. Ibgs that breatMd sit laden with cigarette smoke ID times a week for a year developed lung tissue breakdown. Rabbits expased to the sidestream smoke from 2U cigareues a day for two to five years developed em- physema. And rata exposed to tobacco smoke for 45 minutes a day far two to six months developed twice the number of lung mmors as nonexpos'ed rats. e Dbviously, for etMcal reasons siml- Iar studies cannat be done with people, but the normal practice of the smoking habit has provided some natural ex. periment9. The mO6t dramatic V} these Imolves unbom baMes, wen are the patsive nettipienta of what their smok- Ing mothers inhale. Among pregnant women who smoke, there is an in- creased risk ufsutfering a miscartiage or having a stillbom baby. In addition, babies of smoking mothers are twice as likely to be smaller than normal at birth and they face a third higher risk of dying soon alter birth. The prenatal effects of amoking probably result fmm the fact that the amountafoxygenreachingthefetalor- gans is reduced because n cotine Is a powerful constrictor of blood vessels and bccausC in both the mothei s and the baby s blood carbon monoxide from tlm cigarette smoke replaces some of the oxygen needed for normal growth and development. Even it just the fa. ther smokes, a German study of U,'H egranaies showed, the baby is more Pkely to pe bom dead or afflined with a birth delecL perhaps becase nicotine damagessperm. According to a British study Involv- ing Upon children, the effeas of pas- sb'e smoking during fetal life, and probably during chddhood as well, are apparent at age 11, when the averege readtng score is three months behind c C Jane E.Brody and the children average three-fourths of an inch shorter than if their mothcrs hadnotsmoked. Studies in Britain and Israel showed that the infants of smokicg parents have nearly twice tbe riskof being hos- pimlized with pneumonia or bronchitls. And a study in Detmit amang hundreds ot tamilies lhat have been follow y for years showed that schoolchildren ex- pcsN to tobacco smoke at home have twice the expected number of respira. tory infections. Tobsecu smoke can alsotrigger asthma attacks in suscepti- merLildren. 'ILe health effects of pessive smaking apparently continue throughoat life, ahhough they are somewhat harder to measure in adults. A recent study in Erie County, Pa., reveald that the nonsmoking wives of men who smoke die on the averagc four years youn er than women whose husbands atea~sononsmokers_ - Approximately one in six persons with allergies is also hypersensitive to mbacro smoke, developing such symp- mms as asthma, eye irritation, head- ache, cough and nasal cvngestion. Same people with tobacra allergy sim- plycannot go to partiesor to the movies or work in an office be<ause they are made sick by the smuke they can't avold. Distressing symptoms may zlso accur among rwnallergic persons ex- posed to tobacco smoke_ Many normal, healthy people camplain of stinging ey~and discumfort in the nose and U t in the presence of smakers. If a person's circulatory or respira- MANHATTAN Smoke can injure the nonsmoker. tory system is already crippled by des, easq tobacco smoke can serioasly ag- gmvate his condition. The American Medical Association estimates that at least 35 million Americans have respi- ratury ailments that are made worse bytobaccosmokey e Persons with angina pecmrls, chest pains that result from an ir:sufficient supply of oxygen tu the heart muscle, am likely to become incapacitated by their pain at lower tevels of exercise if they are tlrst exposed to cigarette smoke. A recent study by Dr. W ilbert S. Aronow of the Long Beach, Calif., Veterans Administration Nospital showed that in petients with heart dis. ease the amount of exercise they could do before angina symptoms developed was decreasd by 22 percent after pas- sively smoking 15 cigarettes in two haurs in a well-ventilated room and by Rita Edelman CeakinC Schools Bonna Adams °'""b°' °t r'°"°. °1.1 `,E ^. e°.`, . Ea Cuisine Sans Pepr . t„¢mB9an'. Mendj s Bmncbing Classes 'e .' r,~",U , Pow 1- ,,;,„ ; mmwwar-rau .wr..m~.~......w.m. 2 pogdailiftisrri _ .. 6 percent in a room that was not venti- ned. In addition, the patlents' resting eart rate and blood pressure in- reased and they were more likely to evelnp abnormal heortbcats that ometimes presage a heart attack. Dr. Aronow's study suggests that enple who have suffered heart a itacks nght be wise to avoid places that am svily polluted with tobacco smoke. Shart of locking yourself up in an xir- Ight room, there are a number of steps ou can take to reduce or avoid expo- ure to someone else's tobacco smoke. 'irst, let the people you associate with now'that you are bothered by cigm ene smoke. Politely tell people, vacgers includctl. that their smoking s Gnhering you. If necessary, put no- mek,nR stickars in your otflce, <ar and oneor wear a button thanking people a not sm.okingCheck on your local aamwheresmok.ngisp hlbrred, uch as in ele.aturs, stures and thea- ers and be firm with people who vio- te th^ law. Fatraelze resmuran's that segregate okers and encouage your favorite siaurants to do the same. Check on c smoking rules in mavie thezlers ba re you buy your ttcket-most torbid ok'k ng in all or part of the theater. AI- ays sit in nonsmoking secttons on ancs, trains and buses. The airlines ust provide a no-smnMing seat for you you want it, or risk a $1,000 fine. If you belong to organizations or at- cd meetings or conferences, you ght pmpose that smoking be prohib. d in the mceting room or, lf the mom largc ccough and well venlilated, at smokers be segregated in the back the room. A Guide to Gourmet fervi CATERING Mr Babbingtnn n ni<es urtarxa.Ta.,xaM.er uu ron uv xrw ur.c theBntwnk w ww scavnx `:,,a,. ve. m..maa unrr i mi~ ~....a. `3s, GNILDREN'S PARTY SaFCtALIST Birthdaybakers.,. ,,. Partymaken rooA"oEa Llnd Kaye a ~, „.5, 111,111, r.e.. .,. I KamMan Fonds ' BamKuD Faods I SamgdOEL ,n I s. I Yerkvllle cw-1 I ~-~