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By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON —Separate smoking sections don’t cut it: Only smoke-free buildings and public places truly protect nonsmokers from the hazards of breathing in other people’s tobacco smoke, says a long-awaited surgeon general’s report.
Some 126 million nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke, what U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona repeatedly calls “involuntary smoking” that puts people at increased risk of death from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.
Moreover, there is no risk-free level of exposure to someone else’s drifting smoke, declares the report issued Tuesday - a conclusion sure to fuel already growing efforts at public smoking bans nationwide. Fourteen states have passed what are considered comprehensive smoke-free workplace laws, those that include restaurants and bars.
But the surgeon general is especially concerned about young children who can’t escape their parents’ addiction in search of cleaner air: Just over one in five children is exposed to secondhand smoke at home, where workplace bans don’t reach. Those children are at increased risk of SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome; lung infections such as pneumonia; ear infections; and more severe asthma.
“Exposure to secondhand smoke remains an alarming public health hazard,” Carmona said. “Nonsmokers need protection through the restriction of smoking in public places and workplaces” - and by smokers voluntarily not puffing around children.
The report won’t surprise doctors. It isn’t a new study but a compilation of the best research on secondhand smoke, the most comprehensive federal probe since the last surgeon general’s report on the topic in 1986, which declared secondhand smoke a cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers.
Since then, numerous other health agencies have linked to secondhand smoke to heart disease and other illnesses. Earlier this year, California health officials estimated that secondhand smoke kills about 3,400 nonsmoking Americans annually from lung cancer, 46,000 from heart disease, and 430 from SIDS.
The new surgeon general’s report doesn’t retally the deaths, but it cites that toll.
Read the rest of the story.
Tell us what you think. Is the surgeon general right?
As an ex smoker I would like to say to Ryan that SMOKERS are not gross, SMOKING is gross. People who become adddicted to nicotine are people too. I was a smoker when our ballot was passed to ban it indoors and I voted FOR it. I knew it was unhealthy for all people around me and yet it took 3 more years for me to quit because of the physical, emotional ADDICTION. Before we start ostracizing people for their BAD choices take a look at yourself. I’m sure some where at some time you have made a bad choice.
I think that every state should do as much as they can to pass statutes to cut down on seconhand smoke. Everyone is not aware that all states do not have an indoor smoking ban. I consider myself fortunate to live in one of more progressive states in this area.
Smokers are gross and should not be allowed to smoke anywhere in public.
Just wanted to say that I think it is important to show concern for everyone’s health but smoking isn’t the only risk to our health, before the surgeon general kicks smokers again,I think we should get rid of all the junk food that kids are eating and adults, can you say heart disease, obesity, etc. Ban cars since they pollute the environment and our health. Carbon Monoxide is not just from cigarettes. While they are at, they can ban alcohol totally, see how society will react. Not everyone smokes but they do complain about it,ready to rid the world of cigarette smokers,so I say lets be fair, get rid of one, get rid of both. After all, how many car accidents are related to that drug? How many people are killed by it or addicted to it each day. How many families are ruined by it?
I think Surgeon General Richard Carmona obviously doesn’t have enough work to occupy his time and is wasting our time with redundant reports.
How about spending some of those taxpayer dollars funding disease research instead of wasting it on yet another study?!!!!
Yet another offical who has substituted movement for progress, held it up to public light and said what a good boy am I.
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Posted by F Frampton, Tampa on 06/27 at 06:02 PM
Pamela..you are on the right track. Alcohol and cars have got to go too. MCDonalds and Burger King who offer very little in nutrition, and lots in saturated fats...they have to go too. Rid the stores of Ice Cream, candy and soda. They provide no nutients for the body and only increase fat. TV surely has to at least be cut to a maximum 4 hours per day to force people to get up off the couch and move. Children are no longer allowed to vegetate on the internet or in from of the Playstation. Obesity related illnesses after all kill more people than smoking. The irony here..I recently took an employment application from a police agency and the application was willing to exclude canabus use but tobacco users were not to be considered for employment. Hmmmmm I am a smoker who by choice has not smoked in my home since I have had children. That’s just called love