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Showing posts with label Passive smoking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Passive smoking. Show all posts

Sunday, January 12, 2014

The 50-year war on smoking

The 1964 U.S. Surgeon General's report on smoking — the first official acknowledgment by the federal government that smoking kills — was an extraordinarily progressive document for its time. It swiftly led to a federal law that restricted tobacco advertising and required the now-familiar warning label on each pack of cigarettes.
Yet there was nothing truly surprising about the conclusion of the report. Throughout the 1950s, scientists had been discovering various ways in which smoking took a toll on people's health. Britain issued its own report, with the same findings, two years before ours. Intense lobbying by the tobacco industry slowed the U.S. attack on smoking. And even when then-Surgeon General Luther Terry convened a panel before the report was issued to make sure its findings were unimpeachable, he felt compelled to allow tobacco companies to rule out any members of whom they disapproved.
Saturday marks the report's 50th anniversary. The intervening decades have seen remarkable progress against smoking in the United States, despite the stubborn efforts of the tobacco industry, which lobbied, obfuscated and sometimes lied outright to the public about the dangers of its products. During those years, though, independent research tied smoking and secondhand smoke to an ever-wider range of ailments. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking causes cancer of the lungs, larynx, bladder, bone marrow, blood, esophagus, kidneys and several...
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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Reducing Worker Exposure to ETS

What better time than during the American Cancer Society’s  annual Great American Smokeout, to highlight the benefit of  comprehensive smoke-free workplaces  on the health of workers.   Furnishing a smoke-free work environment has been shown to both reduce exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among non-smokers, and also to decrease smoking among employees.  In Massachusetts, recent surveillance findings suggest that one approach to reaching that goal – comprehensive state laws mandating smoke-free workplaces – had a measurable positive impact. 
The U.S. Surgeon General reports that there is no safe level of exposure to ETS, also known as secondhand smoke (USDHHS 2006).  Workers can be exposed to ETS in their workplaces if co-workers or members of the public are permitted to smoke.   ETS causes lung cancer and heart disease, and is also linked to respiratory diseases. Not only does ETS worsen asthma but it also increases the likelihood of developing asthma.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the third state behind Delaware and New York to pass a comprehensive law, banning smoking in bars, restaurants and non-hospitality workplaces.  The Massachusetts Smoke-Free Workplace Law (M.G.L. Ch. 270, § 22) requires all enclosed workplaces with one or more employees to be smoke-free.
We recently presented findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System demonstrating that...
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Thursday, September 5, 2013

WOMEN'S SAFETY AND HEALTH ISSUES AT WORK

Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from www.cdc.gov

Over half the children born in the United States are born to working mothers.1

Many NIOSH studies were done to learn whether women may have reproductive health hazards that may be related to their work environment.

NIOSH Publications

The Effects of Workplace Hazards on Female Reproductive Health
DHHS (NIOSH) Pub. No. 99-104 (1999)
EnEspaƱol

Related Resources

A longitudinal analysis of total workload and women's health after childbirth
This study involved employed women who were recruited while hospitalized for childbirth. Results included that the time spent on paid and unpaid work was associated with significantly poorer mental health and increased postpartum symptoms during the first year after childbirth.

Earlier age at menopause, work, and tobacco smoke exposure
Among women older than 25, earlier age at menopause was found among all smokers and among service and manufacturing industry sector workers. Women (particularly black women) age 25 to 50 had an increased risk of earlier age at menopause with both primary smoking and second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure. Control of SHS exposure in the workplace may decrease the risk of death and illness associated with earlier age at menopause in US women workers.

Workplace Safety and Women (Podcast) (Running time: 7:41)
This women's health podcast focuses on four important issues for women at work: job stress, work schedules, reproductive health,...
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Anti-Smoking Battle Moves Outdoors

Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from abcnews.go.com


First it was bars, restaurants and office buildings. Now the front lines of the "No Smoking" battle have moved outdoors.

City parks, public beaches, college campuses and other outdoor venues across the country are putting up signs telling smokers they can't light up. Outdoor smoking bans have nearly doubled in the last five years, with the tally now at nearly 2,600 and more are in the works.

But some experts question the main rationale for the bans, saying there's not good medical evidence that cigarette smoke outdoors can harm the health of children and other passers-by.

Whether it is a long-term health issue for a lot of people "is still up in the air," said Neil Klepeis, a Stanford University researcher whose work is cited by advocates of outdoor bans.
Ronald Bayer, a Columbia University professor, put it in even starker terms.

"The evidence of a risk to people in open-air settings is flimsy," he said.

There are hundreds of studies linking indoor secondhand smoke to health problems like heart disease. That research has bolstered city laws and workplace rules that now impose smoking bans in nearly half of the nation's bars, restaurants and workplaces.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The New Danger of Thirdhand Smoke: Why Passive Smoking Does Not Stop at Secondhand Smoke

"Passive smoking exposure is a topic of great concern for public health because of its well-known adverse effects on human health (International Agency for Research on Cancer 2004). Two news articles on this topic were published in the February 2011 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (Burton 2011; Lubick 2011). Lubick (2011) discussed the global health burden of secondhand smoke, and Burton (2011)emphasized a new and alarming consequence of 
smoking in indoor environments—“thirdhand smoke”—a term first coined in 2006 (Szabo 2006).

"Thirdhand smoke is a complex phenomenon resulting from residual tobacco smoke pollutants that adhere to the clothing and hair of smokers and to surfaces, furnishings, and dust in indoor environments. These pollutants persist long after the clearing of secondhand smoke. They are reemitted into the gas phase or react with oxidants or other compounds present in the environment to form secondary contaminants, some of which are carcinogenic or otherwise toxic for human health (Matt et al. 2011). Thus, thirdhand smoke exposure consists of unintentional intake (mainly through inhalation but also via ingestion and dermal routes) of tobacco smoke and other related chemicals that occurs in the absence of concurrent smoking. Exposure can even take place long after smoking has ceased, through close contact with smokers and in indoor environments in which tobacco is regularly smoked.

Citation: Protano C, Vitali M 2011. The New Danger of Thirdhand Smoke: Why Passive Smoking Does Not Stop at Secondhand Smoke. Environ Health Perspect 119:a422-a422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1103956


For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.




Saturday, April 23, 2011

Occupational Secondhand Smoke Exposures Continue in Some States

A recent report by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that despite potential disease smoking is not prohibited yet in some workplaces.


"Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure causes lung cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in nonsmoking adults and children, resulting in an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and 3,400 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmoking adults each year. Smoke-free laws that prohibit smoking in all indoor areas of a venue fully protect nonsmokers from involuntary exposure to SHS indoors. A Healthy People 2010 objective  called for enacting laws eliminating smoking in public places and worksites in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC); because this objective was not met by 2010, it was retained for Healthy People 2020 (renumbered as TU-13). To assess progress toward meeting this objective, CDC reviewed state laws restricting smoking in effect as of December 31, 2010. This report summarizes the changes in state smoking restrictions for private-sector worksites, restaurants, and bars that occurred from December 31, 2000 to December 31, 2010. The number of states (including DC) with laws that prohibit smoking in indoor areas of worksites, restaurants, and bars increased from zero in 2000 to 26 in 2010. However, regional disparities remain in policy adoption, with no southern state having adopted a smoke-free law that prohibits smoking in all three venues. The Healthy People 2020 target on this topic is achievable if current activity in smoke-free policy adoption is sustained nationally and intensified in certain regions, particularly the South.

"As of December 31, 2010, in addition to the 26 states with comprehensive smoke-free laws, 10 states had enacted laws that prohibit smoking in one or two, but not all three, of the venues included in this study. Additionally, eight states had passed less restrictive laws (e.g., laws allowing smoking in designated areas or areas with separate ventilation). Finally, seven states have no statewide smoking restrictions in place for private worksites, restaurants, or bars. Of note, only three southern states (Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina) have laws that prohibit smoking in any two of the three venues examined in this report, and no southern state has a comprehensive state smoke-free law in effect.


Secondhand smoking is a recognized compensable condition for workers' compensation benefits. Recently a casino worker exposed to secondhand smoke was permitted by a court to obtain benefits for the lung cancer that he suffered.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Lingering Consequences of Smoke in the Workplace

Countless studies have confirmed the health risks associated with smoking and secondhand smoke exposure. Now, new research is bringing attention to potential health risks associated with so-called thirdhand smoke, the mixture of tobacco smoke toxicants that lingers in the air and on surfaces after the smoke itself dissipates. 


An article in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives takes a look at the state of the science on thirdhand smoke and discusses why some researchers believe it is a cause for concern.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Warning: Surgeon General Finds Workplace Tobacco is Even More Dangerous to Your Health



Workers who are exposed to tobacco smoke, even in small quantities, are subjecting themselves to an increased risk of illness and disease. The newly published Surgeon General Report, How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease, takes a detailed, scientific look at the toxicology and biology behind nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking, including carcinogenic effects and the adverse effects on cardiopulmonary and reproductive health.

Exposure to tobacco smoke – even occasional smoking or secondhand smoke – causes immediate damage to your body that can lead to serious illness or death, according to a report released today by U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin.  The comprehensive scientific report - Benjamin’s first Surgeon General’s report and the 30th tobacco-related Surgeon General’s report issued since 1964 - describes specific pathways by which tobacco smoke damages the human body and leads to disease and death.

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