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NYT SUMMARIZES PASSIVE SMOKE DANGERS [09/30.1]
60,000+ Deaths Per Year
According to the New York Times, secondhand tobacco smoke may kill more than 60,000 Americans each year, and cause more than 1 million visits to a doctor each year.
It is, according to the article "Haze Begins to Clear Over Hazards of Passive Smoke," especially dangerous for children.
Below are excerpts from the article, together with estimates of the
health effects of secondhand tobacco smoke on nonsmokers:
Secondhand smoke has been declared a health risk by the National Research Council, the Environmental Protection Agency and in reports of the surgeon general. Each finding has been attacked by the industry. When the EPA declared secondhand smoke a "Class A" carcinogen, as hazardous as radon -- and estimated that it was responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually, the tobacco industry sued to force the government to retract the report.
Since then, large population-based studies have generally supported the initial EPA findings. The most recent example is a report from California's Environmental Protection Agency, a comprehensive survey of the scientific evidence for health risks of secondhand smoke. The report cites evidence not just for cancer and heart disease, but also a host of other ailments -- from exacerbation of childhood asthma and increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome to cervical cancer and spontaneous abortion.
Another recent report is smaller in scope but offers another line of evidence supporting the health risks of secondhand smoke, experts say. In findings reported at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society earlier this month, Stephen Hecht of the University of Minnesota Cancer Center said that he had detected the metabolized leftovers of a cancer-causing substance found only in tobacco smoke in the urine of nonsmokers exposed to everyday amounts of secondhand smoke. The substance, NNK, in animals causes adenocarcinoma, a lung cancer common to smokers.
This research is among the first that goes beyond the statistical approach and attempts to describe a path of disease causation. "We feel this presents a link" between exposure and disease, Hecht said.
"It's the same kind of missing link we have been searching for," said Eriksen.
THE HUMAN COST OF SECONDHAND SMOKE
Estimated U.S. annual morbidity and mortality in nonsmokers from secondhand smoke
DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTS
Low birthweight: 9,700 -- 18,600 cases
Sudden infant death syndrome: 1,900 -- 2,700 deaths
RESPIRATORY EFFECTS IN CHILDREN
Middle ear infection: 700,000 -- 1.6 million visits to the doctor
Asthma induction: 8,000 -- 26,000 new cases
Asthma exacerbation: 400,000 -- 1 million children
Bronchitis or pneumonia*:
150,000 -- 300,000 cases
7,500 -- 15,000 hospitalizations
136 -- 212 deaths
CANCER: 3,000 deaths from lung cancer**
CARDIOVASCULAR EFFECTS
Ischemic heart disease: 35,000 -- 62,000 deaths
*18 months and younger
**Estimates unavailable for nasal sinus cancer
SOURCE: California Environmental Protection Agency