Homes and Cars Related News

CARB Takes on Tobacco

It's official: Cigarettes pollute

By: Editorial Board
Source: Sacramento Bee
Published: February 15, 2006

The California Air Resources Board quietly pulled off another first the other day. The board declared secondhand smoke a toxic air contaminant. It's the only such designation by an air regulator in the world.
 
The board's action puts tobacco smoke in the same category as the toxic fumes that spew from car tailpipes or factory chimneys.
 
For years, state air regulators have been required to monitor and reduce exposure to those harmful pollutants. They must now devise means to reduce human exposure to secondhand smoke.
 
The science behind the tobacco designation is irrefutable. According to the Air Resources Board, smokers release 40 tons of nicotine into the air in California each year, 365 tons of soot and ash and 1,900 tons of carbon dioxide. Beyond the millions of smokers who die or are sickened by their own dangerous addiction, the smoke they spew into the air has been linked to 400 additional lung cancer deaths a year in nonsmokers, 3,600 deadly heart attacks and 31,000 asthma attacks in children.
 
Still, regulating tobacco use any further will be a tough challenge. Smoking in public indoor settings - including restaurants, bars, offices and other workplaces - is already banned in California. Even outdoor smoking is restricted. Most major outdoor sports arenas either ban smoking or severely limit it.
 
The next major challenge may be to restrict or ban smoking in more private settings, perhaps in cars when children are present or in apartments. Many non-smokers who live in apartments that share common ventilation systems with smokers can't escape harmful exposure. Some jurisdictions have created non-smoking sections in senior apartment complexes, or banned smoking in common areas. Such restrictions are expected to expand in coming years.
 
Bills to ban smoking in cars when young children are present have failed passage in the Legislature for the past several years. But the air board's action may give the proposals new impetus.
 
If nothing else, the designation serves to remind the smokers that their unhealthy habit has dangerous consequences to the nonsmokers around them. It's a message that cannot be delivered too often.