SmokERS, Not Just Smoking, Barred At Major Hospital // Thirdhand Tobacco Smoke Prompts Growing Restrictions to Protect Both Children and Adults

2009-03-25 15:43:47 - SmokERS -- not just smoking -- have been barred in a public area at a major hospital, a restriction likely to spread to other areas of the hospital as well as to other hospitals, says Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a national organization leading the fight to protect nonsmokers from thirdhand tobacco smoke.

Public interest law professor John Banzhaf of ASH notes that many steps are being taken to protect nonsmokers from thirdhand tobacco smoke:

* Judges in dozens of states have banned smoking in homes 24 or even 48 hours prior to the time a child involved in a custody dispute visits, thereby protecting the child from thirdhand smoke as well as from the actual secondhand smoke when the parent would otherwise be smoking in the home during the visit.

* More than a dozen states have banned smoking in homes in which foster children reside, thereby providing them with protection from thirdhand tobacco smoke from their foster parents or others who might otherwise smoke in the home while the children are at school or otherwise outside.

* A federal court has ruled that persons who are sensitive to tobacco smoke residues in the workplace may claim protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act [ADA], requiring employers to make reasonable accommodations to protect them from such unnecessary exposure.

* ASH recently forced a major university to stop an employee, who took smoke breaks outside his smoke free office, from working in the same office with a women whose health -- and the health of her unborn child -- were threatened by his thirdhand smoke, according to testimony from two of her doctors.

* Even in a state with a law which allegedly prohibits discrimination against smokers, a major company prohibits anyone from coming on the premises if they have any detectable odor of tobacco smoke on them. To avoid being barred, smokers likely have to change clothing, shower and shampoo, and use mouthwash.

Thirdhand tobacco smoke, "the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers' hair and clothing" [NY TIMES] -- was recently identified in the medical journal Pediatrics as "toxic" and as a cancer risk to nonsmokers of all ages, especially to children of parents who smoke only outside the family home.

Indeed, notes Prof. John Banzhaf of ASH, these tobacco smoke residues contain a mix of carcinogens, toxins, and other irritants including highly carcinogenic compounds, heavy metals, hydrogen cyanide (used in chemical weapons), butane (used in lighter fluid), toluene (found in paint thinners), arsenic, lead, and even radioactive Polonium-210 (used to murder a Russian spy).

Another study showed that even a smoker's breathe may be harmful to children, and perhaps also to adults. It found that the chemicals in a smoker's breath were sufficient to cause or aggravate respiratory illnesses including asthma, coughs, and colds among children in homes where parents smoked only outside the home as compared with kids in homes where the air was not contaminated by the breath of a smoker.

"These two studies suggest that society must go beyond merely protecting children from being in the presence of parents and others who smoke in their homes, and think about more effective measures to protect children from parents who smoke anywhere. It also provides a strong scientific basis for agencies which already refuse to permit smokers to adopt children, even if the potential adoptees claim that they only smoke outdoors, and never in the presence of the child," says Banzhaf.

In the university situation one doctor stated that "her sensitivity is also to the tobacco smoke residue on the person or clothing of a smoker, not just the smoke in the air. Therefore, to protect her health, especially during her pregnancy, she should not be assigned to an office with someone who smokes during the work day."

Another doctor said that "smoking and second hand smoke has known effects on the placenta that carries nourishment to the baby. Therefore, to protect her health and the health of her baby, she should not be assigned to an office with someone who smokes during the workday, even if that person doesn't smoke in that room."

Thus, says Banzhaf, adults as well as children should be protected from thirdhand tobacco smoke, and restrictions aimed at smokERS, as well as smoking itself, are likely to increase in the light of these new scientific findings.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // ash.org