=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #58
—January 4, 1988—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF TOBACCO SHOWS REAL DANGER TO BYSTANDERS.
People who smoke tobacco are making people around them sick, and
in some cases contributing to those peoples’ deaths, according to
a book-length study by the National Academy of Sciences. Some of
the study’s conclusions:
If you are married to a tobacco smoker and you don’t smoke
yourself, your chances of getting lung cancer are increased 34%
because of “environmental tobacco smoke” (ETS) in your home.
“Considering the evidence as a whole, exposure to ETS increases
the incidence of lung cancer among nonsmokers,” says the Academy.
Pregnant women exposed daily for several hours to ETS have an
increased likelihood of producing low birth-weight children; low
birth-weight children have a greater likelihood of dying,
compared to normal birth-weight children.
Children of parents who smoke, compared to children of parents
who do not smoke, show an increased prevalence of respiratory
symptoms, usually cough, sputum, and wheezing. Bronchitis,
pneumonia, and other lower-respiratory infections occur up to
twice as often in children less than a year old who have one or
more parents who smoke.
In 1980, 32% of adult Americans considered themselves smokers,
about half of them male and half of them female. In 1955, half
of all men smoked and 25% of women smoked. Since 1964, when the
first Surgeon General’s report linked cigarettes to lung cancer,
more women are smoking and fewer men are smoking; those who do
smoke are smoking 10% more cigarettes per day (30 per day vs. 27
per day), perhaps because individual cigarettes are less potent
than they used to be.
The current report by the National Academy is a careful review of
all previous studies of the human health effects of
“environmental tobacco smoke.” This report lays to rest the
argument that smoking only hurts the smoker; it shows beyond any
reasonable doubt that smoking hurts everyone who breathes the air
near a smoker. From reading the Academy’s study, we conclude:
smoking is anti-social behavior and those who do it in the
presence of others are guilty of assault or worse.
Get: Barbara Hulka and others, ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE:
MEASURING EXPOSURE AND ASSSESSING HEALTH EFFECTS, (Washington,
DC: National Academy of Sciences [2101 Constitution Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20418), 1986; 5th printing, 1987. 337 pgs.
$19.95. Phone (202) 3342665.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: tobacco; health; health statistics; disease
statistics; studies; findings; national academy of sciences;
cancer; lung cancer; developmental disorders; birth defects;
respiratory disease; surgeon general; second hand smoke;
sidestream smoke; environmental tobacco smoke;