California Identifies Secondhand Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant

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I found the following interesting news article at

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2006/2006-01-27-04.asp

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Celeste

California Identifies Secondhand Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant

SACRAMENTO, California, January 27, 2006 (ENS) - Secondhand tobacco

smoke causes an average 68 percent increase in breast cancer risk for

women younger than 50, concludes a report by California Environmental

Protection Agency staff that the state Air Resources Board voted

Thursday to approve. Some women who have not reached menopause have as

much as a 120 percent higher breast cancer risk than women who are not

exposed to secondhand smoke.

On Wednesday, the Air Resources Board identified environmental tobacco

smoke (ETS), or secondhand smoke, as a toxic air contaminant. In a

related action the Board began the formal rulemaking process to

designate environmental tobacco smoke as a toxic air contaminant that

may cause and/or contribute to death or serious illness.

The Board's action to list secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant

is based on the report conducted by the state EPA's Office of

Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).

" This new report reaffirms many of the adverse health effects

associated with ETS, especially in children who live in homes where

smoking occurs, " said Air Resources Board (ARB) Chairman Dr.

Sawyer. " It also raises new concerns about its effects on women. All

this strongly supported the need for the Air Board to identify ETS as

a serious health threat. "

OEHHA staff found that exposure to ETS is directly associated with a

variety of adverse health outcomes involving developmental,

respiratory, carcinogenic, and cardiovascular effects. Some of these

adverse health outcomes include heart disease; lung cancer; nasal

sinus cancer; and breast cancer in younger, primarily premenopausal women.

Secondhand smoke is a complex mixture of compounds produced by burning

of tobacco products. OEHHA says researchers have identified over 4,000

individual constituents in secondhand smoke, many of which are known

or suspected human carcinogens and toxic agents.

" The ARB's action rightfully puts second-hand tobacco smoke in the

same category as the most toxic automotive and industrial air

pollutants, " OEHHA Director Joan Denton said. " Californians,

especially parents, would not willingly fill their homes with motor

vehicle exhaust, and they should feel the same way about tobacco smoke. "

In California each year, tobacco smoke is responsible for the release

into the environment of 40 tons of nicotine, 365 tons of respirable

particulate matter, and 1,900 tons of carbon monoxide, the ARB said.

Secondhand smoke is also a source of other toxic air contaminants such

as benzene, 1,3 butadiene, and arsenic.

For the report, the Air Resources Board evaluated exposures to

secondhand smoke, while the Office of Environmental Health Hazard

Assessment (OEHHA) assessed the health effects from these exposures.

The OEHHA evaluation clearly established links between exposure to

secondhand smoke and adverse health effects, including some that

affect children and infants such aspremature births, low birth-weight

babies, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Other effects of secondhand smoke on children include the induction

and exacerbation of asthma, and infections of the middle-ear and

respiratory system.

The OEHHA evaluation also found links between secondhand smoke

exposure and increased incidences of breast cancer in non-smoking,

pre-menopausal women. The evidence to date for increased breast cancer

in older postmenopausal women is considered inconclusive.

The report found epidemiological and biochemical evidence suggesting

that exposure to secondhand smoke also may increase the risk of

cervical cancer. Positive associations were observed in three of four

case-control studies, the researchers said.

Nonsmoking spouses of husbands and wives who smoke were found to be at

greater risk of death from coronary heart disease, the OEHHA analysis

found, although no risk percentages were given.

The data reviewed also suggests that the effects of secondhand may

contribute to stroke, including atherosclerosis of the carotid and

large arteries of the brain, the OEHHA said in the report.

Secondhand smoke had already been linked to adult incidences of lung

and nasal sinus cancer, heart disease, eye and nasal irritation, and

asthma.

" This is the most careful analysis of the data up to the most current

time frame that exists anywhere, " says Cheryl Healton, president of

the American Legacy Foundation, a health group in Washington, DC. " It

has gone substantially further than anything else and is carefully

vetted through a group of very well respected scientists. "

Now that environmental tobacco smoke is identified as a toxic air

contaminant, the Air Resources Board must evaluate the need for action

to reduce exposures. In this risk management step, the Board conducts

an analysis that includes a review of measures already in place,

available options and the costs for reducing the health risks from

exposure to secondhand smoke.