Jump to full article: Reuters, 2008-02-08
Author: Julie Steenhuysen
Intro: A woman in her late teens died from an acute asthma attack triggered by secondhand cigarette smoke shortly after arriving at her job as a waitress in a bar in Michigan, researchers reported on Friday.
They said it was the first reported case of an immediate death caused by secondhand smoke.
"She didn't have any other possible known causes of death," said Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, a Michigan State University professor who oversees three state public health surveillance systems. . . .
"After about 15 minutes, she had an acute asthma attack and collapsed on the floor. The autopsy clearly indicates she died from asthma," said Rosenman, who would not disclose the woman's name or the precise place and time of her death for privacy reasons.
Rosenman said the woman had asthma since age 2. Her asthma was poorly controlled. She had made four visits to her doctor in the year before her death for flare-ups, and had been treated in a hospital emergency department two to three times that year.
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Quotes from this article:
There are a lot of statistics out there about secondhand smoke. Here is a human face. She died acutely. It is a tragic death.
Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, a Michigan State University professor who wrote in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine about a teenager who died from an acute asthma attack triggered by secondhand cigarette smoke shortly after arriving at her job as a waitress in a bar.
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