ATHENS, Ga. --- Smoking bans have made the air healthier in bars and restaurants, but may have made the air just outside the establishments more hazardous, University of Georgia researchers have found.
Nonsmoking diners and imbibers sitting in outdoor patios or sidewalk seating areas connected to the bars or restaurants are picking up doses of secondhand smoke, the scientists found.
In fact, nonsmokers who volunteered to sit in the outdoor seating areas had levels of a tobacco byproduct in their bodies up to 162 percent higher than when they first sat down, said Luke Naeher, a professor in the university's environmental health science department.
Collaborating with researchers in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Northeast Health District, Mr. Naeher and other UGA researchers measured levels of a substance called cotinine.
Mr. Naeher's research team assigned 20 nonsmoking volunteers to spend six evening hours in one of three outdoor areas for the study -- outside a downtown Athens bar, outside a restaurant near downtown or outside UGA's main library.
"We're looking at real-world settings," Mr. Naeher said.
After six hours, the volunteers gave a saliva sample, which the researchers tested for cotinine, a nicotine byproduct often used as an indicator of tobacco exposure.
Volunteers who hung out where smokers gather outside a restaurant saw their cotinine levels more than double. Nonsmokers outside a bar had their cotinine increase by even more, up to 162 percent.
The study is published in this month's issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene .
Previous studies have shown that restaurant and bar smoking bans reduce the incidence of heart attacks and respiratory illness among people inside the establishments.
But researchers don't know the health impacts of outdoor secondhand smoke.
"The question is, is it an environment that warrants concern or further study?" Mr. Naeher said. "The answer is, we don't know yet."
The researchers aren't quite ready to declare outdoor cafes a new health hazard for those that may inhale secondhand smoke there -- including children, restaurant and bar workers, and pregnant women and their unborn children.
"We feel like it's something we need to be taking a look at," said Lou Kudon, one of the authors of the study. Mr. Kudon is program manager for the Athens-based Northeast Health District, which includes Clarke and nine other area counties.
Next, researchers will measure levels of a carcinogen called NNAL in nonsmokers who spend time in outdoor places where people smoke.
Comments
All right, I find this study dumb. I'm no fan of tobacco smoking in public areas, especially confined areas, but smoking outside gives the non smoker the option of positioning up wind of the smoker when sitting with them. If a smoker joins the group, it would behoove them to make room on the down wind side. Going out of your way to sit in a smoke rich area while outside is just dumb.
Let me guess harleyrider, tobacco addict?
The correct thing to do is let the owner to make a decision which group earns him the most. Then put a sign on all doors
,one like the the one a pack of cigarett's. This should be the owner's decision.NOT THE PUBLIC OR GOVERMENT
So all those smokers that get emphysema and COPD and congestive heart failure and lung cancer got it from water vapor. Who knew?
harleyrider's just a spammer. Google him. This anonymous spammer with no education, no intelligence and not even a real name presumes to "educate" others on science and ethics? Not a chance.
So smoking bans continue to pass. No one pays any attention to his BS, because if his PR talking points had any validity at all he'd have the guts to stand up in front of legislators and present them, as real people do.. But then he'd have to tell people who he really is, and the real reason he floods message boards with his boilerplate. And THAT could prove embarrassing.
It's all just "viral marketing," meant to fool tobacco's last major demographic: the poor, the ignorant, and all those stupid enough to believe internet spammers.
I don't know , but I expect the people who would conduct such a test would have an agenda to start with...just saying...
found this interesting "Some studies have suggested that cotinine (as well as nicotine) improves memory and prevents neuron death. For this reason it has been studied for effectiveness in treating schizophrenia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases[3]. " and this too :"The word 'cotinine' is an anagram of 'nicotine'. It is used to measure the grade of tobacco smoking, but might also improve mental function."
There is a simple solution to all of this!
If smokers embrace electronic cigarettes, then the issue of smoking bans will be mute. There is no second-hand smoke, no odor, no carcinogens, no CO2, and no mess like ashes, butts, etc. from electronic cigarettes. If smokers of tobacco cigarettes would switch their habit to a non-tobacco electronic cigarette, we would have no further need to further infringe on the personal freedoms of any one group.
If you are smoker, consider it as an option.You won't be inhaling all the chemicals and carcinogens that you currently do from your tobacco cigarette. If you are a non-smoker, learn about the technology, and pass the information on to your friends who are smokers. The electronic cigarette is a win-win in so many ways.
You can learn all about this technology including the contents of electronic cigarette vapor and other information such as scientific studies fully documented at my informational website, http://www.NoTobacco.net/Blog
Thank you
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