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Secondhand Smoke Bans Improving Heart Health

Janice Simmons, for HealthLeaders Media, October 19, 2009

Efforts to ban smoking in public places and eliminate secondhand smoke are making an impact in reducing heart disease among nonsmokers as well as smokers, a new study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) finds.

"It's clear that smoking bans work," said Lynn Goldman, MD, professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, and chair of the committee of experts that prepared the report.

Additional research is needed on how secondhand smoke—also known as environmental tobacco smoke—produces toxic effects, Goldman said. "However, there is no question that smoking bans have a positive health effect."

Approximately 43% of nonsmoking children and 37% of nonsmoking adults are exposed to secondhand smoke nationwide, according to public health data. However, despite reductions in the rate of individuals breathing environmental tobacco smoke over the past several years, an estimated 126 million nonsmokers were still being exposed in 2000.

A 2006 report from the U.S. Surgeon General's office had concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause heart disease. It had indicated that moving toward smoke free policies would be the most economical and effective way to reduce exposure. However, the actual effectiveness of smoking bans to reduce heart problems was less clear cut.

Based on its research with 11 key studies, the IOM committee concluded that it is "biologically plausible" to have a relatively brief exposure to secondhand smoke "to cause an acute coronary event."

The IOM report was requested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the light of a growing number of studies in smoke free localities, states, and countries that found reductions in heart attack rates after smoke free laws were implemented.

Currently, 27 states, plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, have passed smoke free laws that cover restaurants and bars.

Janice Simmons is a senior editor and Washington, DC, correspondent for HealthLeaders Media Online. She can be reached at jsimmons@healthleadersmedia.com.
2 comments on "Secondhand Smoke Bans Improving Heart Health"


TReynolds (10/22/2009 at 5:24 PM)
This is bunk science. Check out the article by Jacob Sullum: http://townhall.com/columnists/JacobSullum/2009/10/21/myocardial_infractions

harleyrider1978 (10/19/2009 at 9:55 AM)
SECOND HAND SMOKE IS A JOKE. Ask the anti-tobacco folks to tell you what truly is in second hand smoke...when it burns from the coal its oxygenated and everything is burned and turned into water vapor..................thats right water..........you ever burned leaves in the fall...know how the heavy smoke bellows off.......thats the organic material releasing the moisture in the leaves the greener the leaves/organic material the more smoke thats made......thats why second hand smoke is classified as a class 3 irritant by osha and epa as of 2006........after that time EPA decided to change the listing of shs as a carcinogen for political reasons.......because it contained a trace amount of 6 chemicals so small even sophisticated scientific equipment can hardly detect it ........they didnt however use the normal dose makes the poison computation when they made this political decision. However osha still maintains shs/ets as an irritant only and maintains the dose makes the poison position.......as osha is in charge of indoor air quality its decisions are based on science not political agendas as epa's is. We can see this is true after a federal judge threw out the epa's study on shs as junk science......... Wednesday, March 12, 2008 British Medical Journal & WHO conclude secondhand smoke "health hazard" claims are greatly exaggerated The BMJ published report at: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1057 concludes that "The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer are considerably weaker than generally believed." What makes this study so significant is that it took place over a 39 year period, and studied the results of non-smokers who lived with smokers..... meaning these non-smokers were exposed to secondhand smoke up to 24 hours per day; 365 days per year for 39 years. And there was still no relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality. In light of the damage to business, jobs, and the economy from smoking bans the BMJ report should be revisited by lawmakers as a reference tool and justification to repeal the now unnecessary and very damaging smoking ban laws. Also significant is the World Health Organization (WHO) study: Passive smoking doesn't cause cancer-official By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent " The results are consistent with their being no additional risk for a person living or working with a smoker and could be consistent with passive smoke having a protective effect against lung cancer. The summary, seen by The Telegraph, also states: 'There was no association between lung cancer risk and ETS exposure during childhood.' " And if lawmakers need additional real world data to further highlight the need to eliminate these onerous and arbitrary laws, air quality testing by Johns Hopkins University proves that secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than occupational (OSHA) workplace regulations. The Chemistry of Secondary Smoke About 94% of secondary smoke is composed of water vapor and ordinary air with a slight excess of carbon dioxide. Another 3 % is carbon monoxide. The last 3 % contains the rest of the 4,000 or so chemicals supposedly to be found in smoke? but found, obviously, in very small quantities if at all.This is because most of the assumed chemicals have never actually been found in secondhand smoke. (1989 Report of the Surgeon General p. 80). Most of these chemicals can only be found in quantities measured in nanograms, picograms and femtograms. Many cannot even be detected in these amounts: their presence is simply theorized rather than measured. To bring those quantities into a real world perspective, take a saltshaker and shake out a few grains of salt. A single grain of that salt will weigh in the ballpark of 100 million picograms! (Allen Blackman. Chemistry Magazine 10/08/01). - (Excerpted from "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" with permission of the author.) The Myth of the Smoking Ban ?Miracle? Restrictions on smoking around the world are claimed to have had a dramatic effect on heart attack rates. It's not true. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7451/ As for secondhand smoke in the air, OSHA has stated outright that: "Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)...It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded." -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Sec'y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997 -harleyrider1978