A s the evidence for the risks of harm from exposure to secondhand smoke has grown, so laws and policies to protect workers, children, and other community members from exposure have escalated. Clean indoor air laws are gradually becoming more common, even in traditionally hard to change venues such as restaurants and bars, with countries such as Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Italy, most Austral...

I read with interest the article from Bermudez et al., "Environmental Tobacco Smoke Is Just as Damaging to DNA as Mainstream Smoke" (EHP 102: 870-874). Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a complex mixture of chemicals resulting from dilution in a confined environment of tobacco smoke. ETS has three forms: 1) sidestream smoke (SS) is produced by a cigarette during the puff intervals, 2) mainst...

Japan has been behind the times in terms of promoting smoking control. The health-promotion law, which included the aim of preventing environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in public places, was newly introduced in Japan in 2003. The community-based survey on the present state of restaurant smoking restrictions and restaurant owners' concern of smoking is important as it is a reflection of the commu...

To assess the prevalence and the level of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the workplace after the enactment of the law restricting indoor smoking in Macedonia, we performed a cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire study including 372 never-smoking workers recruited from six workplaces. We found a high prevalence of workers exposed to ETS in the workplace (27.4 %) with...

Environmental tobacco smoke is an important contaminant of indoor air. For a non-smoker living with a smoker the exposure is equivalent to about 1% of that from actively smoking 20 cigarettes a day (based on plasma cotinine). There is strong and consistent evidence that passive smoking increases the risk of lung cancer. It is estimated that there is an increase in risk of 24% (95% confidence in...

B ans on smoking in public places and workplaces, including bars and restaurants, have recently been introduced in California and New York City and have been announced in Ireland. In addition, the UK Chief Medical Officer and the EU Health Commissioner have recently called for a ban on smoking in public places. Despite clear evidence that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) adversely affects heal...

Initially, tobacco was considered as a decorative plant and only later began to be treated as a herb with special therapeutic properties. With time, it was found that tobacco had strong insecticidal and addictive properties. There also occurred reports about the negative influence of tobacco on human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies smoking as a chronic, progressive diseas...

This article reviews data from experimental and epidemiologic studies on passive smoking and makes 12 recommendations for further study. The physicochemical nature of passive smoke, the smoke inhaled by nonsmokers, differs significantly from the mainstream smoke inhaled by the active smoker. At present, measurement of urinary cotinine appears to be the best method of assessing exposures to pass...

OBJECTIVE This study of a birth cohort in the city of Tongliang in Chongqing, China, evaluated the relationship between two prenatal exposures (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAH) and environmental tobacco smoke(ETS)) and child intelligence quotient (IQ) as measured by the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence at age 5 years. A coal-fired power plant was the major source of amb...

BACKGROUND Recently, it has focused the role of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the etiology of dental caries, so we plan to evaluate the association between environmental tobacco smoke inhalation and caries experience in 10-15-years-old children. METHODS A transversal descriptive study was designed. Carried out in the Primary Dentistry Unit. 9th Health Department. Valencian Countr...