of secondhand smoke

SECONDHAND SMOK

BY MARY BROLLEY

Although they aren’t yet old enough to vote, a group of suburban Houston middle schoolers is pushing for a law that will make their neighborhoods safer.

They want smoking banned in all public places in Pearland, a bedroom community of 41,000 residents; and the students from David Bean’s science class at Sablatura Middle School collected 418 signatures to back them up.

Presented with the petition, the Pearland City Council decided a smoking ban should be sent before the city’s voters this November.

The children’s well-publicized plea for smoke-free public places brought attention to the issue of secondhand smoke — a threat to children’s safety that gets far less attention than kidnappings, injuries or exposure to drugs.

“As awareness grows about the dangers of smoking around others — especially children — it might help people quit,” said Dr. Mario Gonzalez, a pulmonary specialist at The Methodist Hospital. “Parents want to protect their children.”

Gonzalez has seen the effects of secondhand smoke in his patients who suffer from lung diseases and lung cancer, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“It sneaks up on them,” he said. “They never smoked, and yet they are suffering.”

Doctors believe environmental tobacco exposure, or secondhand smoke, causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year. Tens of thousands more die of coronary heart disease believed to be caused by exposure to secondhand smoke.

Even for nonsmokers, the smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe is potent. It contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic. In fact, it has been classified as a Group A carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Over the last 20 years, warnings about secondhand smoke have increased. Lately, the drumbeat has gotten louder. The very public lung cancer death in 2006 of 44-year-old Dana Reeve, a nonsmoker who was the wife of the late Christopher Reeve, brought the subject to the forefront.

One out of five women diagnosed with lung cancer has never smoked.

It’s no secret that lung cancer is lethal. About 160,000 Americans die from it each year. That’s more than breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer combined.

And although 87 percent of those who develop lung cancer are or have been smokers,the remaining 13 percent who get lung cancer without ever having smoked themselves constitute “an overlooked minority,” according to Newsweek magazine.

The cancer is every bit as lethal for them, killing 60 percent within a year and 85 percent within five years.

A 2006 U.S. Surgeon General’s report focusing on the effects of secondhand smoke stated that although progress has been made, sustained efforts are required to protect the more than 126 million Americans who continue to be regularly exposed to secondhand smoke in the home, at work and in enclosed public places. Further, the report found that even the most sophisticated ventilation systemscan’t completely eliminate secondhand smoke exposure.

Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous to those least able to protect themselves from exposure — infants, children and the elderly. The Surgeon General’s report noted that because the bodies of infants and children are still developing, they are especially vulnerable to the poisons in secondhand smoke.

KE KILLS

It has been linked with sudden infant death syndrome. It causes breathing problems including pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma in children. And it causes tens of thousands of deaths each year from heart disease in adult nonsmokers. The chorus of warnings is growing. The American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and other trustedhealth advocates devote pages on their Web sites and lobby Congress regularly to make the case for smoking bans. Increasingly, city councils all over the country are grappling with this issue. So, it’s clear. Parents who smoke in front of their children are exposing them to lifethreatening substances. If at all possible, they should quit entirely. At the very least, they should never smoke inside of a home or a car. “I tell (my patients with kids) to stop smoking,” Gonzalez said. He knows quitting is tough. “Nicotine is more addictive than many drugs,” he said. “But (patients) can do it, as long as they realize that it’s not going to be easy. I promise them, ‘we’ll work together to help you quit.’” Gonzalez encourages his patients who smoke to sign a contract with him to set a date for stopping smoking. “If they do it (quit smoking) the right way once, 60 to 70 percent of people can quit,” he said.

Besides signing the contract, “doing it right” means making a concerted effort during the first two or three months to substitute exercise for smoking, reach out for help from loved ones, and throw away ashtrays and all evidence of the smoking habit.

The benefits of stopping smoking — or at least banning it from public places and from enclosed spaces where children are present — will pay off in healthier communities, Gonzalez hopes.

Despite resistance from some bar and restaurant owners who claim that smoking bans hurt their bottom line, more and more communities are opting to go smoke free.

At their appearance before the city council, the Pearland students unfurled a banner listing the 247 Texas cities that currently restrict smoking in public places.

A separate banner boasted, “Coming soon — Pearland.”

DID YOU KNOW?

250 Toxic chemicals in secondhand smoke, including more than 50 that can cause cancer 3,400 Nonsmoker lung cancer deaths caused by secondhand smoke annually 22 Million U.S. children age 3-11 exposed to secondhand smoke 14 Number of states that have passed strong smoke-free air laws 150,000- New U.S. cases of lower respiratory tract 300,000 infectionsin children under 18 months of age each year

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and American Lung Association