The passive smoking "debate"
With the institution of a ban of indoor smoking in all public buildings imminent, the risks of passive smoking have become topical for discussion. Last night I found myself yelling at someone in frustration after he’d made a comment along the lines of “There haven’t been many conclusive studies linking passive smoking with disease.”
Despite my interest in communicating science to the public, I think I managed to be entirely belligerent and quite uninformative. People who are unaware of the scientific research in a certain area are (often) intelligent, rational and largely well-informed and deserve to be treated as such. Towards that end, I’ve presented a summary of what I have found in the literature about passive smoking, with some links to short, interesting popular science articles. Please comment if you’d like to present any other material. However, if you’re going to present a study that claims the link between passive smoking and disease is inconclusive, please first check if it was conducted with funding from the tobacco industry (there are a few of these).
There are 6729 academic research articles concerning the detrimental effects of passive smoking spanning 1964-2007. Many are observational studies linking passive smoking with increased risk of disease (in particular cardiovascular disease and cancer, but also diabetes, asthma, respiratory disease and others). There are also biochemical and genetic studies on the effects of passive smoking.
A seven year (2000-2007) observational study by the centres for disease control
Here are the first couple of sentences:
Breathing secondhand smoke (SHS) causes heart disease and lung cancer in adults and increased risks for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle-ear disease, worsened asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth in children. No risk-free level of exposure to SHS exists.
A news article about a British study using blood testing for tobacco-derived chemicals:
“Passive smoking danger was underestimated” (2004)
A few other New Scientist articles:
“Passive smoking kills one bar worker a week” (2004)
“Public smoking ban slashes heart attacks” (2003)
“Passive smoking dents children's IQ” (2002)
And my favourite:
“Passive smoking kills pets too” (2002)
Despite my interest in communicating science to the public, I think I managed to be entirely belligerent and quite uninformative. People who are unaware of the scientific research in a certain area are (often) intelligent, rational and largely well-informed and deserve to be treated as such. Towards that end, I’ve presented a summary of what I have found in the literature about passive smoking, with some links to short, interesting popular science articles. Please comment if you’d like to present any other material. However, if you’re going to present a study that claims the link between passive smoking and disease is inconclusive, please first check if it was conducted with funding from the tobacco industry (there are a few of these).
There are 6729 academic research articles concerning the detrimental effects of passive smoking spanning 1964-2007. Many are observational studies linking passive smoking with increased risk of disease (in particular cardiovascular disease and cancer, but also diabetes, asthma, respiratory disease and others). There are also biochemical and genetic studies on the effects of passive smoking.
A seven year (2000-2007) observational study by the centres for disease control
Here are the first couple of sentences:
Breathing secondhand smoke (SHS) causes heart disease and lung cancer in adults and increased risks for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle-ear disease, worsened asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth in children. No risk-free level of exposure to SHS exists.
A news article about a British study using blood testing for tobacco-derived chemicals:
“Passive smoking danger was underestimated” (2004)
A few other New Scientist articles:
“Passive smoking kills one bar worker a week” (2004)
“Public smoking ban slashes heart attacks” (2003)
“Passive smoking dents children's IQ” (2002)
And my favourite:
“Passive smoking kills pets too” (2002)