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Secondhand Smoke

A Service of Washington DOC
AOC, ANB-1
12401 East Marginal Way South
Tukwila, WA 98168

• The EPA has classified environmental tobacco smoke a Class-A "human carcinogen" - causing cancer in humans and unsafe at any level.
  EPA, "Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking," December 1992.
• Because the organic material in tobacco doesn't burn completely, cigarette smoke contains more than 4,700 chemical compounds, including carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, benzene and arsenic. of these, at least 43 are known to cause cancer.
  EPA, "Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Indoor Air Facts," June 1989
• Nonsmokers who live with smokers have a 1-to-30-percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than do other nonsmokers.
  University of California Study, Stanton Glantz, May 1990
• Children of smokers are more likely to have bronchitis and pneumonia, especially during their first year of life, and are more likely to develop asthma, coughs and ear infections.
  Surgeon General's Report, 1986
• Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis in infants each year.
  "Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report, 1992.
• Of 46 million American smokers, 1.4 million to 2.8 million will quit if a national ban on smoking in public is passed. Fifty thousand others would decide not to start smoking each year the law is in effect. Overall, cigarette consumption would decline by at least 10 percent - about 2.5 million packs per year.
  EPA review of The Smokefree Environment Act, "Costs and Benefits of Smoking Restrictions," 1994
• Secondhand smoke causes more disease than first imagined. About 47,000 Americans will die from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke this year and another 150,000 people will suffer non-fatal heart attacks. Previous studies estimated secondhand smoke caused at least 32,000 heart disease deaths in nonsmokers.
  A. Judson Wells, U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Journal of the American College of Cardiology, August 1994.
• Approximately 66 percent of Washington adults want smoking banned in shopping malls; 31 percent said smoking should be allowed only in certain areas of malls. Seventy-six percent said smoking should be banned at indoor sporting events; twenty percent said smoking should be allowed only in certain areas of events.
  Census Bureau's 1992-93 Current Population Survey

SECONDHAND SMOKE ACTIVISM

• Conduct a friendly "sit-in" at a local restaurant that allows smoking.
• Teens in Washington state successfully got together a group of friends and asked for seats in the smoking section of a popular restaurant. To the restaurant's surprise, the entire smoking section was filled with non-smokers!
  
  After everyone had eaten in the smoke-free environment, the teens presented the manager with an award and flowers, thanking him for allowing them to make the restaurant smoke-free, even if for a short time. They let him know how much they liked the restaurant, but would like it even more if it were smoke-free. They also gave him a flyer about the effects of breathing secondhand smoke that they created, and distributed it to restaurant patrons. The even received extensive news coverage (3 TV stations, 2 newspapers and 3 radio stations) and helped bring the issue to the forefront in the community!
  Washington DOC, 1995
• Create a "Smokefree Restaurants Coupon Book" to celebrate and promote smokefree establishments in your community!