Tobacco.org

• Suit over secondhand smoke targets real estate broker 

Alyssa Burrage says she was smoked out of her new $405,000 condominium.

Burrage, a 32-year-old advertising company employee with a history of asthma, had smelled cigarettes when she first visited the bright, parlor-level condo in Boston's South End in 2006 with her real estate broker. But the broker, she alleges, assured her that the owner must be a smoker and the stench would disappear.

After Burrage moved into the Milford Street brick row house, she says, she discovered the secondhand smoke was coming from one of two men living in the condo below. The men and the condo association refused to fix the problem, she adds, and she had to move out.

Today, in what tobacco law specialists call one of the first lawsuits of its kind to go to trial in Massachusetts, a jury is scheduled to decide whether Burrage's real estate broker is liable for damages. . . .

Neither the real estate broker, Joseph DeAngelo, nor his lawyer would comment on the case. In a joint court filing summarizing the case, DeAngelo and his employer, Gibson Sotheby's International Realty, deny that Burrage questioned him about smoke in the condo. . . .

Burrage also sued the two men in the downstairs condominium - Edward J. Allan, who owns the two-story garden-level apartment, and Michael Schofield, the smoker who has lived with Allan for 13 years - and the condominium association. All three defendants settled with Burrage out of court yesterday

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• Nicotine study sparks 'third-hand smoke' fears  

Scientists have found that significant quantities of cancer-causing chemicals are produced on indoor surfaces contaminated by tobacco smoke even when a smoker has been away from the room for hours or even days.

The potentially damaging substances in "third-hand" smoke are present in sufficient amounts on chairs, tables, carpets and even skin to pose a danger to non-smokers, particularly young children, according to an analysis of cancer-causing agents produced by the interaction of stale cigarette smoke and other indoor pollutants.

They found that nicotine can stick to indoor surfaces for days where it interacts with nitrous acid formed from the gas nitrous oxide, released by car exhausts and gas appliances. When combined, the two chemicals form tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) which can cause cancer, said Mohamad Sleiman of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. . . .

The latest study attempted to analyse the toxins involved and to quantify the risk. It found that some of most damaging substances are produced when nicotine, which is not considered to be one of the damaging constituents of cigarette smoke, interacts with the pollutant nitrous oxide, created by the combustion of petrol and gas. . . .

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that levels of TSNAs rose tenfold within a few hours of exposing a nicotine-contaminated surface to "high but reasonable" concentrations of nitrous oxide, about 60 parts per billion. They found similarly high levels of TSNAs in the cab of a lorry driver who smoked heavily.

"Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors but nicotine residues will stick to a smoker's skin and clothing. These residues follow a smoker back inside and get spread everywhere," said Lara Gundel, who collaborated on the project.

"The biggest risk is to young children. Dermal uptake of the nicotine through a child's skin is likely to occur when the smoker returns and if nitrous acid is in the air, which it usually is, then TSNAs will be formed," Dr Gundel said.

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• Aussie experts confirm SIDS breakthrough 

An Australian-led study has confirmed a lack of serotonin was a common factor with babies who die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

The breakthrough offers a "much clearer direction" in the search for a cure for the mysterious syndrome, which still claims one in 2,000 apparently healthy children.

Researcher Dr Jhodie Duncan, of the Melbourne-based Florey Neuroscience Institutes, studied cases of infant deaths from confirmed SIDS and other causes.

The SIDS babies were found to have lower levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter which regulates the body's basic life-sustaining functions.

"Things like heart rate, blood pressure, sleep cycles, respiration, serotonin plays a very important role in all these things that you need to stay alive," Dr Duncan told AAP. . . .

The research also provides a new insight into another of SIDS known risk factors - women who smoke during pregnancy or smoking in a home with a newborn.

Exposure to nicotine was also known to affect serotonin levels in the body, Dr Duncan said.

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• T.F. Council rejects smoking ban 

Smoke easy, Twin Falls residents.

The Twin Falls City Council rejected a proposed smoking ban in city bars by a 6-1 vote Monday night after an hour of testimony from bar owners, bar employees and residents of both Twin Falls and nearby towns. . . .

Most public comment, however, centered around concerns of the economic harm a ban would do to local business and about the city meddling with private property rights. Some said any changes should be made statewide, and noted that nonsmoking bar patrons have several establishments in town to choose from.

Several nonsmokers objected to the ban on principle, while employees from two city bars supported opposite sides — one embracing her work as a choice and another saying he hated putting up with smoke. . . .

C.R. Larsen, owner of the Ground Round, disputed many American Cancer Society statistics, including that second-hand smoke causes cancer — though studies have shown a correlation between the two and the U.S. Surgeon General, National Cancer Institute and other federal agencies classify it as a carcinogen.

“There’s no concrete proof among any of it,” Larsen said.

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• UAE doctors join worldwide cancer awareness campaign 

Dubai: The slogan of the International Union against Cancer this year is: "If you love someone, tell them they stink".

You can click on a heart-shaped button on the Union's website and send that message to someone who smokes.

The World Health Organisation (Who) believes tobacco is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world today. Smoking causes 80 per cent of all lung cancer deaths, including deaths from cancer of the oral cavity, larynx, oesophagus and stomach.

The Who theme for World Cancer Day, which is today, is: "Cancer Can Be Prevented Too."

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• Some renters want Santa Monica to further restrict smoking  

But after the couple made several $100 trips to the emergency room because their infant daughter was gasping for air, they pleaded with the neighbor to stop smoking outdoors, to no avail. Now, contending that secondhand smoke poses a health hazard, they have joined other activists who are pushing the city to snuff out smoking on private balconies and patios in multifamily dwellings.

It's an effort that puts Santa Monica in sync with a growing number of other California cities and counties that have hit smokers where they live. Yet, in the liberal-leaning beach community, the debate takes on added freight because of the political clout of Santa Monica's tenants rights advocates, who contend that landlords would welcome an excuse to evict longtime tenants in rent-controlled units.

The fight might come down to whether such a sweeping smoking ban bumps up against the civil rights of renters. . . .

But a prohibition on smoking on private patios and balconies marks a line that local politicians seem reluctant to cross for fear of offending the influential Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights group in an election year.

Even without an election, said Councilman Kevin McKeown, the issue is especially potent in Santa Monica, where about 70% of residents are renters.

"Do we even have the legal right to disallow smoking within someone's home?" McKeown said. "Can we legislate the breeze?"

Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights has been a political force for 30 years.

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• Cigarettes May Cause Infections  

“Nearly every paper that you pick up discussing the health effects of cigarettes starts out with something to the effect that smokers and people exposed to secondhand smoke experience high rates of respiratory infections,” notes Amy Sapkota of the University of Maryland, College Park. The presumption has been that smoking renders people vulnerable to disease by impairing lung function or immunity. And it may well do both.

“But nobody talks about cigarettes as a source of those infections,” she says. Her new data now suggest that’s distinctly possible.

If these germs are alive, something she has not yet confirmed, just handling cigarettes or putting an unlit one to the mouth could be enough to cause an infection.

The idea that tobacco might contain viable germs isn’t just idle conjecture. Several research teams have isolated bacteria from tobacco that they could grow out in petri dishes. Those earlier investigations tended to hunt for — and, when found, attempted to grow — only one or two species of interest, Sapkota says. . . .

Several thousand potentially toxic chemicals have been isolated from cigarettes. Sapkota says that it’s not hard to imagine that the number of germs hosted by tobacco products could rival that of the carcinogens and other poisons residing in or produced by burning tobacco.

How so, when she’s only found genetic material indicting hundreds of germs? Owing to the bacterial probes available when Sapkota began her tobacco work, she was only able to screen for 700-odd species. But newer probes on the market can now screen for the bacterial 16S genetic material of 5,000 or more germs. And if she used such huge batteries of probes now, she said she fully expects she could turn up at least 1,000 hitchhiking bacterial species in tobacco products.

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• Smokers at risk from their own 'second-hand' smoke 

It is well known that smokers damage their health by directly inhaling cigarette smoke. Now, research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health has shown that they are at additional risk from breathing environmental tobacco smoke, contrary to the prevailing assumption that such risks would be negligible in comparison to those incurred by actually smoking.

Maria Teresa Piccardo worked with a team of researchers from the National cancer Research Institute, Genoa, Italy, to study the exposure of newsagents in the city to harmful cigarette smoke. She said, "Newsagents were chosen because they work alone in small newsstands, meaning that any tobacco smoke in the air they breathe is strictly correlated to the number of cigarettes smoked by that newsagent. We studied the contribution environmental tobacco smoke made to carcinogen exposure in 15 active smokers."

The researchers found that environmental tobacco smoke may have a significant impact on smokers' health. For someone who smokes 14 cigarettes a day, their own second hand smoke resulted in exposure the equivalent of smoking an extra 2.6 cigarettes. According to Piccardo, "Both active and passive smoking contributions should always be considered in studies about health of active smokers."

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• Couple Files Suit Over Smoking: Neighbor's Cigarettes Affect Health, They Say 

Jesus and Pat Martinez have lived in the North Valley home they built since 1962, and they recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary there.

But they say their enjoyment of it has been considerably diminished over the past two-plus years because of a neighbor whose heavy smoking at all hours has ended up coming through the vents of their home and causing adverse health effects.

The Martinezes tried putting an oscillating fan outside and installing air purifiers inside before Jesus Martinez finally went over to speak with the neighbors, he said in a phone interview. But the problem eventually led them to hire legal counsel and file a one-page civil complaint in Metropolitan Court against Linda Garcia for nuisance damages.

Jesus Martinez said when he approached Paul Marquez, the resident of the apartment the smoke was coming from, Marquez said, "It's my wife."

The Martinezes said they proposed the neighbors smoke in front of the house, instead of in the backyard, which adjoins the Martinez property.

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• Trial Date Set For Backyard Smoking Lawsuit  

A family claims their back yard is filled with cigarette smoke from their next door neighbor. But the woman who's being sued, Linda Garcia, maintains the suit is a huge waste of taxpayer money.

Garcia had no attorney by her side as she sat next to Jesus and Pat Martinez, the family suing her over cigarette smoke that's drifting from her back yard into theirs.

Garcia said she can't find a lawyer to take her case.

"They think I'm pulling a practical joke on them," she said.

So Garcia filed her own motion to have the case dismissed, saying it's a violation of her civil rights. But the Martinez's lawyer disagrees, and said the smoke is a nuisance. . . .

Lakins said his clients are not asking Garcia to stop smoking altogther -- they just want her to light up anywhere, except the back yard.

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• Smoke, sleep problems linked 

More secondhand smoke exposure means less sleep for children with asthma, according to new research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Sleep problems ranged from difficulty falling asleep, sleep-disordered breathing, nightmares, sleepwalking and increased daytime sleepiness, researchers led by environmental health expert Kimberly Yolton found.

The study, which appears in today's online edition of "Pediatrics," is the latest in a series of studies Yolton has conducted looking at the effects of secondhand smoke on children.

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• Spanish capital blows smoke rings through legal loopholes  

SPANIARDS ARE born anarchists who seem to believe that rules and regulations, be they double parking, speeding or smoking, are made to be ignored.

A law banning smoking in places of work or leisure was introduced three years ago but it has had little effect.

The sales of cigarettes fell slightly during the first few months, but they are now back to 2006 levels and the numbers of smokers remain the same.

Someone described the 2006 law as having as many holes "as a leaking bucket".

The law banning smoking in the workplace seems to be respected and it is a common sight to see groups of people puffing away in the streets outside their offices.

But when the draft Bill was first presented in parliament, the catering trade - who feared they would lose business - were up in arms.

Using their powerful clout, they succeeded in diluting the Bill to allow smoking in the majority of establishments. . . .

A report issued last week by the ministry of health showed the frightening statistics of the results of smoking. It is estimated that 50,000 deaths from cancer of the lungs, throat and oesophagus, among others, are caused by tobacco; and 1,400 of these deaths are of passive smokers who have been exposed to tobacco smoke.

It is the non-smoker who has trouble finding a smoke-free bar or cafe in Madrid. Pop into virtually any one, and you are forced to view the scene through a haze of tobacco smoke.

Not surprisingly the passive smoking staff are feeling the consequences.

Dublin-born Morys, who has been in the bar and restaurant trade for more than 30 years, is one of the sufferers.

He is now in remission after treatment for throat cancer at the end of last year and is back at work as manager of an Irish pub in Madrid.

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• Report shows health effects of Iowa’s smoking ban 

A new report shows Iowa’s smoking ban has already led to a decrease in hospitalizations for cardiovascular diseases.

According to the report from the University of Iowa and Iowa Department of Public Health, the largest drop was in coronary heart disease, which showed an average 24 percent reduction in hospital admissions since the Smokefree Air Act was implemented in 2008.

That represents 2,324 fewer Iowans with the condition — the single greatest cause of death in the United States — compared to the three preceding years.

“That’s a lot of dollars, too, if you think about it in that way,” said Christopher Squier, a lead author of the report. . . .

The report was presented Thursday by the American Cancer Society at a legislative breakfast in Des Moines.

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• WHO: Tobacco A Global Pediatric Concern 

The Bulletin of the World Health Organization says tobacco is marketed to children and the tobacco industry recognizes that new smokers must be recruited to replace those who quit or die of tobacco-related diseases.

"The dangers of tobacco consumption and second-hand smoke have been widely recognized, children are also harmed in less apparent ways; through hunger and malnutrition when scarce resources are diverted to tobacco purchases rather than food, exploitation of children as workers in tobacco farming and by death and injury resulting from fires caused by cigarettes," the report said.

"Almost half of the children who had never smoked were exposed to second-hand smoke both at home and outside the home."

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• Outdoor Smoking Bans Spread Without Science  

Half a dozen LA County municipalities have banned smoking near their outdoor dining facilities, with a few banning it from publicly-owned property - sidewalks, medians etc. - across their city entire.

All did so citing public health concerns, but none did so based on scientific evidence that second hand smoke (SHS) near an outdoor area poses a health risk, because no such peer reviewed study existed.

The first scientific study on detecting outdoor second hand smoke levels, published by University of Georgia Athens (UGA) researchers in November, 2009, found increased levels of SHS in their subjects, but not levels considered to be risky.

The Athens-Clarke, Georgia, County Commission sought to extend their 2004/5 indoor smoking bans to outdoor areas in late 2009.

By chance, UGA happens to contain a world class environmental health sciences department that works alongside the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) to study indoor smoke and other contaminants around the world.

Environmental health science professor Luke Naeher told WeHo News that he conducted the study (in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene November 2009) because of the indoor ban - he wondered if allowing it in outdoor areas simply moved the risks associated with SHS in employees outdoors. . . .

After hearing the science, Athens-Clarke officials said they have no plans to revive talk of an outdoor smoking ban.

According to the Athens Banner Herald, "the county commission and the state legislature both considered extending the ban to 25 feet outside doorways but abandoned the idea.

"County commissioners," they wrote, "said they would either not support an outdoor ban or are waiting for more evidence before tackling the issue.

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