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Excerpts from: Doctors target deaths, diseases from secondhand smoke

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN The Associated Press silive.com [04/04/02]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Physicians described deaths and diseases they see from secondhand smoke, as the state Medical Society announced an educational campaign Thursday about the dangers of breathing other people's smoke.

The society also backed legislation that would further curb smoking in restaurants and workplaces.

"As far as we're concerned secondhand smoking is smoking," said Dr. Murray Nusbaum, an obstetrician and gynecologist from the Utica area. "There isn't any difference."

Breathing nicotine and carbon monoxide narrows blood vessels and displaces oxygen in red blood cells, Nusbaum said. In his medical specialty, smoking means a doubling of miscarriages, infertility, smaller babies, more osteoporosis, earlier menopause and problems with teeth, complexion and hair.

Other specialists, including surgeons, internists, a family practitioner and an anesthesiologist, spoke at a news conference in Albany. They said they have seen problems ranging from children with ear infections and acerbated asthma to cancers in adults and deaths among those who live with or worked closely with heavy smokers.

"We are here to mark the first time New York state physicians have joined together as a unified medical voice to speak out and promote public policies to protect people from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke and other tobacco-related illnesses," said Dr. Robert Hughes. The surgeon from Queensbury heads the state Medical Society's new Task Force on Tobacco.

With a grant from the American Medical Association's SmokeLess States Program, the task force will start a "Take Back Our Air New York" education campaign at doctors' offices.

Citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the doctors said secondhand smoke kills 63,000 nonsmokers annually in the United States, making it the third leading preventable cause of death, behind smoking and drinking alcohol.

Hughes said the group supports state legislation to further restrict public smoking.

Pending bills, which passed the Assembly last June but died in the Senate, would require restaurants without bars to be smoke-free unless they have a special smoking room set aside, and require workplaces to separately ventilate their break rooms for smokers.

"We don't know where the governor stands on this," said Russell Sciandra, director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York. Advocates are contacting every state senator, Sciandra said. "But we're going to get it through the Legislature."

Gov. George Pataki last year said he was not sure restaurant owners could afford the necessary renovations to restrict smoking to enclosed, separately ventilated areas. "We'll have to take a look and review the details of the legislation," a Pataki spokesman said Thursday.

The bill would expand the state's Clean Indoor Air Act of 1989, which doesn't cover restaurants with seating for 50 or fewer customers.