Tobacco Documents Online

27. San Diego, Cal if . SAN DIEGO UNION' December 22, 1967 IN STUFFY ROOMS ~ Smokers Called Pollution Hazard WASHSi>IGTQNfAP) - A noted physical chemist said yesterday cigarette smokers not only endanger their own health but when puffing in ! poorly ventilated rooms ~ create an air-pollution hazard for nornsmokers. Dr. Philip H; Abelson of the Carnegie Institution of Wash• ington advanced this opinion in an editorial in Science Magazine, of which he is edi- tor. DEADLY GASES Abelson, internationally known as one of the co- discoverers of the element neptunium and for other nu- clear-science contributtons, said cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, nitrogem di- oxide, hydrogen cyanide and other chemicals which can contribute to air pollution in generai. And' he said these gases can reach dangerous levels in poorly ventilated, smoke-filled rooms. He wrote: ":liost people, when they consider air pollution, think of the automobile, the smokestack, or the trash bur- ner. Few point to a most dan- gerous source of air pollution - the cigarette:" TOXIC HAZARD The tobacco industry consis- tently has challenged all alle- Referring, to carbom monox- ide, Abelson said: "Concentrations of carbon monoxide as high, as: 100 parts per million oftenioccur in gar- ages, in tunnels an& behind automobiles. "Such concentrations are tiny ini comparison with those - 42;000 parts per million - found in cigarette smoke. "The smoker survives be- cause most of the time he breathes air not so heavily polluted. However, in a poorly ventilated; smoke-filie& room, concentrations of carbon mo- noxide can easily reach sever- al hundred parts per million, thus exposing smokers and nonsmokers present to a toxic hazard."' gptions of a health hazard! from cigarette smoking.