Indoor Smoking Bans Kick Carcinogens to the Curb

They're creating unhealthy 'smoke zones' on sidewalks, study finds.

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- Bar and restaurant smoking bans are forcing more and more smokers to head for the exit, only to create noxious "smoke zones" on the sidewalk, new research shows.

"In the past few years, we've effectively banned smoking in most public places in many parts of the country, and one unintended result are these 'smoke zones' in front of restaurants and bars," noted study author L.P. Naeher, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia College of Public Health in Athens.

"This is a relatively new phenomenon," he added. "So, we wanted to study it, to see what the smoking exposure is for nonsmoking patrons and for the workers. And what we found is that the level of secondhand smoke in front of restaurants and bars was several times higher than the safety standards established by the EPA's Clean Air Act."

The findings were presented Monday at the American Thoracic Society's International Conference in San Francisco.

Signed into law in 1963, and most recently updated in 1990 and in 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Clean Air Act" sets national air quality regulations and air pollution standards.

According to the American Lung Association (ALA), the EPA classifies secondhand smoke as a carcinogen containing hundreds of toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, ammonia and cyanide.

ALA estimates suggest that in the United States about 3,400 lung cancer deaths and upwards of almost 70,000 heart disease deaths occur each year as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke. And last year, a U.S. Surgeon General report revealed that nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are routinely exposed to secondhand smoke.

In their study, Naeher's group measured the level of pollutants in the air outside several drinking and eating establishments in and around Athens, Ga.

Athens is a college town with more than 100 bars and restaurants, all of which began implementing a full smoking ban in 2005. The team tested air near two bars and two restaurants, plus one location away from restaurants and smokers.