Tobacco Documents Online

•.. 9341 ~ ~ MAY 21 1986 ?o?633t3??

• By tiildred Hamilton Etcaminer st.ff u•riter FTHE federal Qean Air Act wera applied to'mast officea, there would be a sttwR alert The air Is 7HAT dirty. That's the word from I ; ~ Dr. Stanton Clants of the Uttiversi• ' ~ gy of California at San Ftancisca i Mcst indoor air poilution cotnPs 1 xiroatci~~^n~~~ 6utsomeortlfe ; r othec vWai4s iadude eatissions frota ` etfice oopiers, particle board and fiber carpon monoxide exhated by ~•.rottera and trapped by poor ventita- tUon-even the stagnant wator funtes r! fiota motdy coik on cooiing systems. ;[; Ailare hetltA hazards However, atost of 3he 5,00(1 annual lung cancer :deatlts caused by "secmnd•haad : 'atnoke' are among noasmoke:s :forced to work beside snokers ~ • Jantes Repace, environmer.tal po& cy analyst of the Environmental P'ro ; 'tection Agency, herels.a week from F:1,ttiss Washingtoa, D.G., oEflce, pointed ~'so the 5,a00 deaths as he talked about ~ :thedangesa of-ncoad-0utid smoke*' ~.and ways to' minimas indoor air poUu- ~ tion. r 'Tobaceo amoke," hesaid. "Es head 4•aad shoulders above everything else l:as a carrinogen, and as t/fe ause of ir- ~ titating respiratory problems of nost- ~ stnokes tn the orfit:c." Public awares>es and remedial' d- forts by experts are slowly increasing around the country. A medical condt tion known as "the tight building t,yn- drome" is Dove a recognized ailtnent. Two occupational health dinics, one at UCSF and one at San Francisco • General Haspitai, deal with it. Suspect buildittgs can now be tnoo- itored by Industtial'' hygienists and' epil. ilemlObgsstz Architects and interior designers are giving more attention to , Jheir selection of mataials and me- ' clfanical engineess are fncramagly aware of ventilation challenges Pro• lessional societies in the buikiing W4 i are also reassessing air standards and I federal and state legislatrors are ` looking at possibte controls. 'Qongress has given' the EPA $2 million forsesearch on air polluuon and has asked us to come up with rea ommendations.' Repace iaid. Ihe Bay Area, meanwhile, is home to the Indoor Air Pollution Cwlition., an infortnal' asocistion of employers. employees, unions, eavit'onnfental groups and the American Lung Asso• aation. It's headquartered at the . Northern California Occupat.ia:u1 Health Center 021 CThanning Way, Berkeley A17M phone 6'/255071 'Ihis office is a resourca,'said tndustrial hy-, gienist Patty Quinlan of the cYStter'r Labor Occupational Health Program. "San Flrancisco kd the N•ay witb itt law regulating smoking in the work s pscesa mplade people rnlize it is possible to gd such a law. Now there are many t;isai- lar moves across the eountry " Tluy can't come too aooa,beadd- ed `A pesoa spends 88 perceat or his titoe at work and' at hotnL 73e office atmosphere Is<four times as importattt as 6ome ezposiue for'teoond-hund smoke• berauae the ortice mtoke den- sity is far higber." A recent national surveyof office worketsm conducted by Honeywdl, re• veairi that 67 peroatt called Poor ven- tihtion a problem and said they had dirGadty doing thei: work bersuse of . the air quality in their ofrtccs, K'otnen are at gteater risl't; thi's and a other studies show. They are concen- trated in lower-paying jobs with less tflobility. shared space and poorer air quaiity., and they report high jobrdatr ed st ress; from their dttal, Iloateand- ~.. work demands. Office poDution, untD the recent rash'of aoanwkingocdittattcea, has been something of a nontan'kland, dRo~aremarkahle f ob dezning up outdoor pollutiaa 71u National lasii• tute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administratiaa eogceo- trateon ind'ustrial workpiaces.so the office worker itas to take respatsiblI• ty for hitrself." Mast offices don't provideade• quate ventilation, a move he linked to the energy crisis of the 1970s x'hen outside afrsources were shut off to cut alsts. "We know this is fairly eo®ttton. You an tell bythe:xuffy air. TAat's when tobacco smoke becomes unbear- ' able and is assocJated with carcinogen tisic• . C!alling'srtwkeless' ashttxys'fan• cy garbage Replace said Incr+nsittg ventilation and controlling pollutants offer the only answers. "Sutitwould t~eqalt'e 2ti alr changes pes bour to rs duce tlierislt or lung cances frotst ta hacco mtoke to acceptabie levels.'lZnt would create an enormous wind- awtm'Ttie current m=uirement of theAeterfcan Soesetyaf Ifieating, Re• frigeration and Akconditloning E~tg* neers, he aid, is sltghtly Iestthan one aircbange per 31aur. "Atrdeaners wouW oasti?8.~00 per tanoker, so It comes down toltao- ning anokin& This is also better for the employer bemuse it hdps the nottsatoker, it belps tbemaker who smokes iess a quits, and it saves moa- ey. Several economk stndies show that smokes take tiwice tbe amount of sick leave." Clantz, pointing to the I,600 toxic chemicals in'secottdtand satoke," spoke from this badkgratnd At U(SF, he's an asoaate professor of medicine, a member of the Cirdio- Vasculir Research Institute and clui' man of the bio-ettgineeing graduate . program. He al5o is president of Cali- : fornians for NonSitrokets' Rights ; -P_ublic health policy is mind•bog~ gling, , hesaid.lbere are hundreds of scientific p3pers on the danger of '^see : ond•hand smoke," butno government action has been taken. In contrut, otlt- ~ er contaminants have been banned af• ; ter "two'or three studies' 'Ihe cigarette stttpker, he said, is af- fected by the first gas and the concen- ', tnte of tats `Secand•handsmoke' Is 1' different, not s5 hot and in much smaller particles. Some think fts ar- cfnogens are more readily absortkd• . so It is ntore dangerout" : One ma f orioclu tn the Indoor Air Pollution CoaGtion ithree•year work for better tndoor alr quality bas been todevelop a standard, Patty Quinlan said. "We submitted a petition to the stateQSHA asking for betterventila- tion and lower exposure liaNn of con- taminants, and It agreed to look at minimum ventilation standards." The eagiAeering society. ASHRAE. Indoor pollution warning signals Here are the warning sig- nals of indoor air pottution, according to Prevention mafl- azine: Mucous•membrane irrija- tion Eye irritation I' Headache ~ I Odor Skin irritation and rash " Sinus congestion cou9fi Sore throat Shortness of breath Abnormal taste Diuiness Fatigue Nausea Wheezing and hypersensi- turitx

: shesaid, now bas a mininum stan- Qard requiring S cubic feet per murutt of fresA outsideair ia a builQing where smoking isa'tpecmitted and?D cubic feet per minute where t]tereis mwking.Me society is now cowisider Ing revising this with a higher level be cause of other contaminants besides smolce-poJlution from the oecu. paAts tltemseives, the furnishings and y."i^^'°^t." Atterwworlcers moving into a aew state buiiding became sick, the state architect's of fice checlced and found seri.ousventilation pmblems "lt now has a'bakeout' program," Quuttan said. Aseries of tests for contaminants are run.'lhere is a period of.high heat and the building is flushed with out side air. This eliminates many of the toxic gas probl'ectts.'llbe practice is be• ing copied in some private buildings. 7bday's new sealed building's re- quire ittcreased cooperation by archi. tecta, buiiders, interior designers and mechanicall engineers, noted Marsha Rackiick, interior designer with the g} ant firm of Skldmore4 Owings and Merrili. "There is concern about materials and ventilation. Some toxic materials give off gasquickly.soby the timetlle building is ready, they are no longer toxic. Some give of f gas later.'ihere are many new man-made products, and sometimes combinations cause problems. Basic2lly. no standaM's are set noM; but I sec.staicter controls in the future." . Some of the tight buidding syn. .. : drome viaims turn up in the Occupa- tionat and Environmental Medicine Clinic headed by Dr. Robert Harrison at UfSF. In evaluating and treating patients with worl:r-elated injuries and itincsm, Harrison said, "A signif'} cant percent, at least 10 percent, are related to the tight building syndrome or indoor air pollution. .Mis Itas beengrowittg in the fast two or three yeatt becat~se of con- structbn to conserve energy with wio- Qows that wonYopen.lbe ventilation isnot always adequate,and tbe mate ei'+is give of f Iow-levei t+oxic ow MIM A rash of complaintsabout a new Bay Am office building lasl summer led to a buiiding study.'lbe air levels of chentiral5 were found to be below OSElA ce0ingsA but they were high enough enough to cause persistent, Zingering irritation fmm a combina- tiott of fumes from materials and ven- tilations subsequent changcs were made in tbe bulldWB YentilatlDA 6yi- M1n. i'!be clinic (phone 66618&llk in oper- ation Ansetast]uty.,iSopento the pub• Iic. and Harrison icavailable tosmwer questions. More evaluations are done at San : J~rauciscof eneral Hospital, where Dr. : Cbarles Becker heads the GCeupation- al Idealth Cltnic /1i113391k - In San Fraocisca; the antismoking ardinance is"goinggreat,"s;id Ia- apeclor Paul Schxabacber of Z%e aty's environmental health ofrice.ln Its year of operation, he has received 14acomptaints, out of 102,40Q work places. "We bad one administrative bearing to ce.solve a case. Nobody has gone to the district attotney: nobody has been taken tocourt'Iheworst problem was misunderstanding by big oompanies, but they have come into l3ne. It'c a seif-Watcing ordinance We have t0-have a complainnt before we can act.' Glantt pointed out that 7.4 anillion ; workers in Caiifornia are now covered j by non-aaokers rights The tos Ange- lcs law went ihto effect in mid-April. 1'bere are workplace smoking bans In San Diego. San Jose, Palo Alto, L1upec tino, Mountain View and at Sunfocd University. Other legal bzros are In the warks from New York to Florida. "At a recent health conferecxe,w Glaatz said. `it was predicted that 10 . years from now, no one w iil smoke at work, or itt planes." : V ?. 3 ©+3