a. Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can cause or exacerbate a wide range of adverse health affects, including cancer, respiratory infections and asthma. (California Environmental Protection Agency, Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant, Executive Summary, June 2005.) The National Cancer Institute determined in 1999 that secondhand smoke is responsible for the early deaths of up to 65,000 Americans annually. (Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: the Report of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph 10, Bethesda, Maryland, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, August 1991.)
b. Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen) (California Environmental Protection Agency, Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant, Executive Summary, June 2005.)
c. Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. (The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
d. Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year. (California Environmental Protection Agency, Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant, Executive Summary, June 2005.)
e. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of ETS in restaurants and bars were found to be two (2) to five (5) times higher than in residences with smokers and two (2) to six (6) times higher than in office work places. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Report on Carcinogens, Tenth Edition 2002. National Toxicology Program.)
f. The work place is a major source of secondhand smoke exposure for adults. Since 1999, seventy (70%) percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy. Blue collar and service employees are less likely than white collar indoor workers to be covered by smoke-free policies. Restaurant employees are far less likely than other workers to be protected by smoke-free workplace policies, more likely than other workers to have these policies violated where they do exist and are more likely to be exposed to high levels of secondhand smoke on the job. Only forty-three (43%) percent of this population work under one-hundred (100%) percent smoke-free workplace policies. Only twenty-nine (13%) percent of wait staff and thirteen (13%) percent of bartenders work under such policies. As of 2002, over 6.6 million Americans worked in food preparation and service occupations. One (1) in five (5) workers in these occupations is a teen, fifty-six (56%) percent are women, almost twenty (20%) percent are Hispanic and just under twelve (12%) percent are African American. (The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
g. Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under eighteen (18) months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year and causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome deaths in the United States annually. (California Environmental Protection Agency, Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant, Executive Summary, June 2005.) Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke inhale the same cancer-causing substances and because their bodies are developing, infants and children are especially vulnerable to the toxins in secondhand smoke. Both babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than unexposed babies, which increases the risk for many health problems. Mothers who are exposed to secondhand smoke while pregnant are more likely to have lower birth weight babies, which makes babies weaker and increases the risk for many health problems. (The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
h. Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear resulting in 790,000 physician office visits per year. Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma. (California Environmental Protection Agency, Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant, Executive Summary, June 2005.)
i. The current Surgeon General’s Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack. (The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
j. The current Surgeon General’s Report also concluded that eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. Conventional air cleaning systems can remove large particles, but not the smaller particles or the gases found in secondhand smoke. Routine operating of a heating, ventilating and air conditioning system can distribute secondhand smoke throughout a building. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the preeminent U.S. body on ventilation issues has concluded that ventilation technology cannot be relied on to control health risks from secondhand smoke exposure. (The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 6 Major Conclusions of the Surgeon General Report. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
(Ord. BG2011-5, 1/24/2011)