Tobacco.org

• Students search for smoking gun 

Green, Dietz and a handful of other volunteers for the University of Georgia Air Quality Lab were collecting data for a group of Environmental Health Science Department researchers who want to find out how much tobacco smoke permeates outdoor environments where smokers congregate.

This past weekend, next weekend, and again in the fall, the volunteers will be recording the number of smokers and other passersby in a handful of downtown locations, as well as monitoring the air for carbon monoxide and particulate matter that is associated with tobacco smoke.

Because local law bans smoking in all bars and restaurants, restaurantgoers in downtown Athens are more likely to sit with smokers outside than two years ago, said Luke Naeher, an UGA environmental health science professor who is leading the study.

"There are fairly high levels of environmental tobacco smoke out there - in outdoor public places such as outside of restaurants or bars - but not much data on it," Naeher said. "We want to find out if these levels ... are of public health importance."

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