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A New Risk For Kids: "Third-Hand Smoke" 

I live in a city with an indoor smoking ban in restaurants and bars, and few of my friends and relatives smoke, so I haven't really faced a lot of third-hand smoke with my infant son. I still worry about second-hand smoke: my favorite outdoor caf� is a haven for smokers, and I'll switch seats if a smoker is lighting up in the direction of my son.

Readers, how concerned are you with third-hand smoke and making sure your kids' environment is smoke-free?

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'Third-hand smoke' awareness may curb home smoking 

A new study suggests that making the public aware of the dangers of "third-hand smoke" -- the toxic gases and particles that linger on smokers and on furniture -- may motivate people to enforce a strict no-smoking policy at home.

Researchers behind the study, published in the January edition of the journal Pediatrics, are believed to be the first to have coined the term "third-hand smoke."

The study says children are especially susceptible to third-hand smoke exposure because they breathe near, crawl and play on, touch, and mouth contaminated surfaces.

It says children exposed to low levels of tobacco, such as through third-hand smoke, have "the steepest slope in the decrement in reading levels" -- suggesting that compounds in tobacco smoke can be poisonous to nerve tissue, even at extremely low levels.

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Parents who smoke only in garden may still harm children, doctors warn  

Doctors say that smoking outside or using a fan to clear away smoke will not remove the potentially harmful pollutants clinging to smokers themselves

Toxins carried on clothes, hair and skin can still be inhaled and prove harmful to infants and children, they said.

They cautioned that smoking outside or using a fan to clear away smoke will not remove the potentially harmful pollutants clinging to smokers themselves

These can also linger on fabrics and dust in a room after smoke has cleared.

But few parents are aware of the dangers posed, believing only that second-hand smoke can have a serious effect, researchers have said.

They warn that babies and other young children are more susceptible to 'third-hand smoke' than adults because their lungs are still developing.

"When you smoke - any place - toxic particulate matter from tobacco smoke gets into your hair and clothing," said Dr Jonathan Winickoff, from MassGeneral Hospital for Children, in Boston, and an assistant professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School, who led the study.

"When you come into contact with your baby, even if you're not smoking at the time, she comes in contact with those toxins. And if you breastfeed, the toxins will transfer to your baby in your breastmilk."

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Law Protects Against "Third Hand Smoke" as Well as Second Hand Tobacco Smoke  

Fortunately, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, the law provides protection against exposure to this substance, previously simply known simply as "tobacco smoke residue," which contains highly carcinogenic compounds, heavy metals, hydrogen cyanide (used in chemical weapons), butane (used in lighter fluid), toluene (found in paint thinners), arsenic, lead, and even radioactive Polonium-210 (used to murder a Russian spy).

A federal court has held that an employee whose health is adversely affected by tobacco smoke residue has a cause of action under the Americans With Disabilities Act [ADA] against an employer who refused to reduce his exposure in his workplace, and a complaint by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) recently forced a university to protect a woman and her unborn child whose health was threatened by tobacco smoke residue on the clothing of an officemate who smoked outdoors.

In the latter situation one doctor stated that "her sensitivity is also to the tobacco smoke residue on the person or clothing of a smoker, not just the smoke in the air. Therefore, to protect her health, especially during her pregnancy, she should not be assigned to an office with someone who smokes during the work day.'

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Local advocates target car smokers  

Give Heidi Henson a badge and a police cruiser, and there's little doubt what she'd do. "Every time I see a parent smoking while driving with kids in the car, I want to pull them over and talk to them about the dangers of secondhand smoke," said Henson, the tobacco cessation coordinator at MultiCare and a member of the Tobacco Advisory Board of Pierce County.

"They need to know it's not OK to poison children," she said.

Washington smokers, harried from one sanctuary to another over the past few years, soon might lose one of their last remaining safe spots to light up.

Anti-smoking groups and health officials are rounding up sponsors for a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would outlaw smoking in vehicles when children are passengers.

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EDITORIAL: State adjusting to smoking ban, but it still needs to be tweaked  

Six months into a statewide ban on smoking in public places, business owners and smokers seem to have made adjustments.

We have not witnessed a wave of bars and restaurants closing because smokers choose not to go out.

In a Thursday Courier story, Business Editor Jim Offner talked to a number of bar and restaurant owners. Most said the Smoke-free Air Act hasn't made a significant impact on their businesses. . . .

Most lawmakers in the state agreed the smoking ban passed last year was not a good bill. We agree.

The casino exemption was one of those lawmaking head scratchers. What message does it send? Is the second-hand smoke at a casino somehow healthier than at the bowling alley? Is the casino business more important in this state than the neighborhood pub? Do casino employees have lesser rights to clean air than those in other businesses?

We expect lawmakers will revisit the smoking ban this coming session.

We would prefer the casinos go smoke-free as well, but if the Legislature can't agree on that, then let all adult establishments go back to choosing whether to allow smoking.

The state seems to have adjusted well to the smoking ban. Now let's make it work better.

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Are Smokers Being Unfairly Targeted? 

North Dakota already outlawed smoking in restaurants and other enclosed public places, though many bars are exempt.

But if a group of Williston students have their way, smoking will be illegal in a car that`s also carrying someone who`s under 16.

Kincaid says, "I choose not to if I have kids with me. I won`t smoke in my car. That`s already my choice. But somebody saying that I can`t? I don`t know about that."

The bill`s legislative sponsors admit that it will probably be a tough law to get passed. But smokers are already being affected by something that requires no legal permission.

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LETTER: No smoking, please  

I sat home on Saturday night wishing there was someplace my asthmatic husband and I could go to watch the Red Wings game. You know, someplace where we would not come out at midnight needing to take a shower, wash our hair, launder our clothes and hang our coats outside, just so our house wouldn't stink of cigarette smoke.

Marty Knollenberg tells me that his restaurant-owning buddies and the beer and wine lobbyists who financed his campaign would lose all their business if the smoking ban were passed in Michigan. I contemplated that while I waited for my overcrowded five-hour flight to Seattle. Airlines banned smoking and yet people still fly, a lot of people. I thought about it again while sitting in the sold-out movie theater. Smoking is banned in movie theaters and yet people still go to the movies. I wonder if people in New York, Florida, California, etc. have stopped dining out?

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Norfolk pub in hot water over changes 

Action is planned to remove a smoking shelter, window and satellite dish installed without consent at a pub.

South Norfolk district council is concerned that various alterations have been made to The White Hart, Hingham, all of which required listed building approval. The work included a new window, hanging baskets and gates at the entrance to the rear courtyard.

The smoking shelter is described as a basic structure with a felt roof, and the window is a standard casement. Neither is considered to fit in with the character and appearance of the 17th century Grade 2 listed building

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Man denies attack near live rail track  

A man has denied assaulting a rail passenger who was allegedly pushed off a platform onto the track at a station.

Ionel Rapisca, of Joyce Green Lane, Dartford, entered not guilty pleas at Maidstone Crown Court to causing Linda Buchanan grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

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LETTER: Health news proves need for smoke ban  

Kudos to The Star for such a fine New Year's gift. The Jan. 1 lead article, "Study: Smoking ban saved lives, hearts," was terrific. The paper's decision to run this on Jan. 1 was brilliant, an eye-opener on a day when many of us are seeking to enforce new resolutions and are contemplating how to begin the New Year.

The purpose of this My View is to urge Gov. Mitch Daniels and the General Assembly to make Indiana a smoke-free state. Let's start the year off right, save hearts and lives, model healthy behavior, protect all Hoosiers in all public places and provide a wholesome environment for our children. . . .

For a cleaner environment, a healthier future for our children and a truly safe workplace for all employees, we must make the logical and correct choice of a comprehensive smoking ordinance for Indiana.

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Mitchell bar, restaurant decides to go smoke-free 

Instead of awaiting a decision by the state Legislature, Joel Van Dover and his partners have decided to implement their own smoking restrictions.

Beginning Monday, Blarney’s Pub and Casino will not allow smoking, except in an enclosed video lottery casino and on its outdoors patio.

It’s a topic that’s been under discussion for six months, said Van Dover, general manager of the southern Mitchell establishment. When the time came to vote last week, Van Dover and his five partners voted unanimously to make the change.

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Secondhand Smoke & Heart Attack Risk; Poor Physical Fitness During Childhood & Heart Disease Risk During Adulthood 

In one of the most important public health research studies published in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control published an update of the Pueblo Heart Study on December 30th. This epidemiological study was performed, prospectively, over a 3-year period between 2002 and 2004 in Pueblo, Colorado. During the second half of this study, Pueblo enacted stringent legislation to eliminate smoking in public places. The incidence of admissions to hospitals for heart attack in the Pueblo area were monitored throughout the course of this study, both before and after the smoking ban was initiated. . . .

There are a couple of factors that make this public health study so powerful, including its prospective design, and the fact that the entire population of the Pueblo area was assessed for changes in the incidence of heart attack following the implementation of a new ban on smoking in public places. Also, the heart attack admission rates for two adjacent communities without public smoking bans, including the much larger Colorado Springs area, added an important set of controls that have not been included in similar previous studies. . . .

The updated data from this study reveals a striking cumulative reduction in the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks. When compared to the number of heart attack admissions that occurred prior to the enactment of the public smoking ban, there was an incredible 41 percent reduction in such admissions noted during the additional 18 months of follow-up data. Thus, within 3 years of implementing a public smoking ban, the number of heart attacks in Pueblo dropped, amazingly enough, by nearly one-half. At the same time, similar data collected from two surrounding communities without a public smoking ban showed no significant changes in heart attack admissions during the same timeframe.

I should note that, while this study did not separate smokers from nonsmokers, previous studies have shown that susceptible nonsmokers appear to be at an especially high risk of experiencing heart attacks due to exposure to secondhand smoke. . . .

Based upon more than five decades of scientific data linking tobacco smoke with cancer, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease, it still amazes me that there are so many communities that still permit smoking in public places, or that have enacted hopelessly anemic limitations on the ability of smokers to subject the 80 percent of the U.S. population that does not smoke to highly toxic secondhand tobacco smoke. An estimated 500,000 people die every year in the United States, alone, from completely preventable tobacco-associated diseases. This updated data from the Pueblo Heart Study should galvanize public health advocates and agencies, and government leaders, to better protect the public from unwanted exposure to tobacco smoke.

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EDITOTRIAL: Another indictment of secondhand smoke  

Washington's indoor smoke ban - a law pioneered in Pierce County - is looking even smarter than anyone first thought.

When the ban was enacted by initiative in 2005, the case for it largely rested on the health of people who work in smoky places - bartenders, waiters and the like. They were at risk, the argument went, because they were forced to breathe the exhaust of smokers eight or more hours a day.

And so they were. But an accumulating body of evidence suggests that other nonsmokers are also placed at grave and immediate risk by shorter exposures to tobacco smoke. . . .

Some defenders of tobacco have countered that the researchers didn't distinguish between smokers and nonsmokers who'd suffered heart attacks. They suggest that the numbers might have been driven down by people quitting smoking after the ban.

The fact that people experience dramatically fewer heart attacks shortly after quitting smoking is not much of an argument against smoke bans - which help smokers quit. In this case, though, the Centers for Disease control cited an earlier study that did distinguish between smokers and nonsmokers. It found that nonsmokers got two-thirds of the risk reduction from a smoke ban, which translates into a large risk increase from secondhand exposure.

People who don't like smoke bans typically argue that adults ought to be able to make their own decisions about health and smoking. That's true. It's precisely why smokers should never be able to force their bad decisions on others through secondhand smoke.

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No texting, no smoking while on duty, Metro Manila police chief tells his men  

METRO Manila Police Chief Director Leopoldo Bataoil on Sunday warned all police officers in the region to refrain from smoking and “texting” while on duty and maintain a wholesome image and a good role model to the public.

Bataoil said keeping police officers looking good at all times is one of the main focus of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for the year in order to make the law enforcers closer to the people.

Police community relation, Bataoil said, is one of the key measures in effective crime fighting as it provides the Philippine National Police vital information on criminal activities in their areas of concern.

“I am an advocate of police community relation and that is what I want for the NCRPO personnel wherein people would look at them in a very positive manner,” Bataoil said in the radio interview aired over dzBB.

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