Second Hand Smoke
Jun 30th, 2007 at 7:40 am by Susie
Of course, to some people, there’s never enough proof:
Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants can result in measurable levels of a toxin in workers’ bodies that is known to cause lung cancer, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They found nonsmoking workers in Oregon who worked a single shift in a bar or restaurant that allowed smoking were more likely to have a detectable level of NNK — a carcinogen linked with lung cancer — in their bodies than those who worked in nonsmoking establishments.
“NNK is only found in the body as a result of either smoking or breathing other people’s smoke,” said Michael Stark of the Multnomah County Health Department in Portland, Ore., whose study appears in the American Journal of Public Health.
Stark and colleagues studied 52 nonsmoking bar and restaurant workers who were exposed to smoke at work, and compared them to 32 similar nonsmoking workers from communities in Oregon that prohibited smoking in such places.
For the study, participants, mainly young, uninsured women, gave urine samples before and after working at least four hours.
I’ve always been surprised at how the workplace safety angle regarding smoking bans has been neglected. Instead, the issue has been presented as a “smokers’ rights vs. government regulations” debate.
Smoking should be banned in the workplace because it is a known safety hazard. The government has a clear mandate to ensure employees a safe jobsite. OSHA and other agencies should insist that smokers (i.e., drug-addicted patrons and fellow workers) desist from polluting the air with known carcinogens
It’s really that simple.