erous carcinogens around, its time to think about whether they want to deal with that kind of liability, said Marice Ashe with the Public Health Law Program at the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA. and the lead author of the legal analysis. The science is making it easier and easier to persuade courts to sanction employers who continue to allow smoking.

The Stark study on the effects of workplace smoking, The Impact of Clean Indoor Air Exemptions and Preemption on the Prevalence of a Tobacco-Specific Lung Carcinogen Among Nonsmoking Bar and Restaurant Workers, was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP).

It followed 52 nonsmoking employees of bars and restaurants in Oregon communities where smoking is still permitted in such establishments and compared them to 32 nonsmoking bar and restaurant employees from other Oregon municipalities where smoking is prohibited by local ordinance. Researchers collected urine samples from both groups before and after their work-shifts and tested them for the tobacco produced lung carcinogen NNK.

What they found is that three out of four employees who worked in an establishment where smoking was permitted had detectable levels of NNK compared to fewer than half of the unexposed workers. In addition, exposure to tobacco smoke was associated with a three-fold increase in levels of the carcinogen.

The study also notes that the amount of NNK in employees exposed to tobacco smoke went up in direct relationship to the number of hours workedby 6 percent an hour on averagegiving the researchers confidence that the levels (of NNK) reported in this study do, indeed, reflect workplace exposure.

The investigators also note that their research supports the notion that the risks of secondhand tobacco smoke in the workplace are borne disproportionately by an already vulnerable group. Employees who participated in their study are typical o
'"/>




Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. New hope on the Horizon for People Wishing to Quit Smoking
2. Cancers of Colon & Rectum linked to Cigarette Smoking
3. Smoking a greater risk than HIV? Yes say health experts!!!!
4. Kick Smoking with Nicotine Drink
5. Smoking spreads Cancer
6. Prescription Drug - Helps People Stop Smoking
7. Quit Smoking
8. Smoking can depreciate intellegence
9. Smoking Delays Pregnancy
10. Smoking Linked To Low Infant Birth Weight
11. GlaxoSmithKline To Cultivate Non-Smoking Environment