Tobacco Scam: Smokefree Restaurants: Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand tobacco smoke is by far the most dangerous air pollutant most Americans ever encounter.

1. Secondhand smoke causes the same disease in non-smokers as smokers.

2. There is no safe level of secondhand smoke.

3. Hospitality workers have the greatest exposure and least protection.

A series of independent scientific assessments over the past fifteen years, from the California Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Surgeon General to the World Health Organization in Geneva, confirms the dangers of secondhand smoke. The only people who disagree have financial ties to the tobacco industry.

Secondhand smoke causes asthma and respiratory problems...

The chemicals in secondhand smoke are responsible for wheezing and asthma attacks. Before California bars went smokefree in 1998, 74% of San Francisco bartenders reported respiratory symptoms, including wheezing, dyspnea (shortness of breath), morning cough, cough during the rest of the day or night, and phlegm production. These complaints dropped almost 60% within just two months of bars going smokefree.

Cancer...

Like active smoking, secondhand smoke causes lung cancer. Secondhand smoke causes some 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States, compared to a few hundred from all outdoor air pollution combined.

Secondhand smoke causes breast cancer in younger, primaily premenopausal women. Since female food and beverage servers are more heavily exposed to secondhand smoke than any other U.S. workers, one in three breast cancer cases among younger waitresses and female bartenders might be caused by being forced to breathe secondhand smoke at work.

Secondhand smoke also causes nasal sinus cancer and there is strong evidence that it causes cervical cancer.

Heart disease...

Heart disease kills even more smokers than cancer. While lung cancer from secondhand smoke kills some 3,000 Americans each year, 35-62,000 more die from heart disease brought on by breathing secondhand smoke.

After accounting for other risk factors (overweight, family history, etc.), the heart disease risks for non-smokers due to secondhand smoke amount to about one-third of the risk for active smokers. For every five or six active smokers felled by heart disease, a non-smoker exposed to their secondhand smoke also dies from the exposure. Something to think about along the bar rail.

Breathing secondhand smoke for just thirty minutes affects blood and blood vessels, including the vital coronary arteries, as much as being a smoker. Two hours of secondhand smoke exposure compromises control of the heart beat, boosting the risk of irregular beats (and sudden death) or a heart attack. Because of these effects, someone in a restaurant who is at risk of a heart attack when secondhand smoke is in the air will be more likely to have a heart attack. When Helena, Montana implemented a smokefree policy in restaurants and bars (and workplaces), heart attacks dropped. Reductions in heart attacks averaging about 25% have been observed in Helena, Pueblo, Colorado, Bowling Green, Ohio, New York State, Piedmont, Italy, Ireland and Scotland when smokefree laws went into effect.

And stroke...

Evidence is also emerging that secondhand smoke increases the risk of stroke. Strokes like heart attacks involve a blood clot in an artery, serving the brain — the causes and mechanisms are similar.

Secondhand smoke chokes the senses...

Besides being toxic, the fine particles, aldehydes, phenol, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and toluene in secondhand smoke burn the eyes, nose, and throat. Other ingredients cause headaches — hardly enhancing the dining experience.

Tobacco smoke's numbing effect on taste and smell is familiar to all smokers. Fine cooks and experienced wine stewards realize that smokers can't taste or smell much of what they're served unless it's been heavily dosed with salt (or soy), sugar (condiments or sweetish wines), pepper, garlic, horseradish or onion. The conceit that cigar "connoisseurs" can sense a $10 difference among ports or brandies — or even between cigars after two or three puffs — is privately laughed at by the people who serve them.

The exact degree to which secondhand smoke spoils a menu or wine list for non-smokers has not been scientifically established. But if blowing tobacco smoke at food was thought to enhance flavor, Big Tobacco would already be out there promoting "leaf-cured" cuisine. It's tried everything else. Nicotine was once upon a time applied to tomatoes, of course, but only as an insecticide.

And poses special risks to hospitality workers...

Secondhand smoke poses special risks to restaurant, bar, and casino workers. secondhand smoke levels in restaurants are 200% as high — in bars and casinos, 300-600% as high as in other smoking workplaces.