Posted on 01/28/2005 1:50:34 PM PST by SheLion
Just how harmful is environmental tobacco smoke?
Not as harmful as the Environmental Protection Agency or those anti-secondhand smoke commercials would have one believe, according to Roger A. Jenkins, Ph.D., consultant to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Chemical Sciences division.
Jenkins presented "Human Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Is What You See What You Get?" at ORNL this week.
"Some people wish I didn't have the findings I have," Jenkins said. "Others say, 'Gee, if this is true, why does the EPA continue to talk about this?' [The research] steps on people's toes, and that's exactly what I want it to do."
Environmental tobacco smoke is a highly diluted mixture of sidestream (70 to 90 percent) and exhaled mainstream (10 to 30 percent) of tobacco smoke.
"'Secondhand' smoke is probably misleading, since most ETS is derived from smoke which is emitted by the smoldering firecone of a cigarette," Jenkins said.
According to Jenkins, the typical smoker inhales 480 milligrams of smoke a day and 32 milligrams of nicotine per day. In a home where smoking is unrestricted, the typical non-smoker will inhale the equivalent of .45 milligrams of smoke particles and .028 milligrams of nicotine.
There are several science-related hurdles to overcome in educating the public about ETS, Jenkins said. The first is getting the public to understand the difference between personal beliefs and science.
"In a society where there are still serious debates about evolution, this can be a real challenge," he said.
The second is avoiding the "means justifying the end syndrome," which Jenkins says involves the distortion of science in the name of preventing youth from smoking.
The third major hurdle is demanding "public policy types" provide perspective for the facts they declare.
"Sure, there are 43 carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) in ETS, but there are also probably about 40 carcinogens in diesel exhaust and wood smoke," Jenkins said.
Indoor air pollution is also caused by many things other than non-tobacco sources, including cleaning, cooking, consumer products like Raid and wood burning.
"As (physician) Paracelsus said in the early 1500's, 'the poison is in the dose,'" Jenkins said. "We still continue to eat lettuce and take showers despite their carcinogens. Life is risky business."
Jenkins is simply remaining true to his profession by bringing forth this politically incorrect information, he says.
"When you start tinkering with science because you want to achieve some political aim, you are no longer a scientist."
Jenkins retired in September from his position as leader of the Environmental Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry Group in the Chemical Sciences Division at ORNL. He has authored or co-authored more than 45 open literature publications in the area of field analytical chemistry and tobacco smoke characterization and human exposure. He is the lead author of "The Chemistry of Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Composition and Measurement," Second Edition.
Jenkins has also acted as an expert witness in several high-profile litigations involving environmental and mainstream tobacco smoke composition and exposure
Living on a broad, flat surface from which there is no danger of falling off.
When their non-smoking lives are done, they can look back and remind themselves of the most exciting thing they ever did in their lives: Riding the kiddie train at the carnival.
And by that part of your statement, you became an enemy.
I'll compare my I.Q. with yours any day.
If you really want to give us the latitude to smoke in private places, get off your bullsh*t condescending attitude!
How is it any business of yours whether adults choose to smoke?
Why are you so emotionally invested in this issue?
I'm sorry if scores of family members/dear friends dropped like flies from smoking and/or "second-hand smoke".
This is no excuse to ignore the give and take of a free society.
I should be unhappy that you're an "enemy"? Please explain to me how continuing in a behavior that is rotting your body from the inside, knowing fully well that it is, in any way indicates good judgment or intelligence?
Seriously, man, it wrecks your body and makes you stink like hell. What's more, continuing to smoke proves that you are beaten. That can't be a comfortable way to go through life.
I believe that it's not a direct cause the way so many claim. What I think is that it's very possible that many of the additives in the smoke could aggravate a predisposition for it, or amplifiy the effects of other things that can cause health problems, such as high cholesterol or hypertension. Why else would there be people that smoke for years and years and years, live to a ripe old age and never get it, while someone like my great-grandmothers could never touch tobacco or be around it much and die from cancer? I think genetics is the key, not tobacco.
That's the difference between causation and correlation. Just because a factor is present in a lot of lung cancer deaths doesn't make it the agent that caused the cancer in the first place.
I very strongly dispute that second hand smoke causes cancer in ANYONE.
Why do you think you have the right to choose for me what is "comfortable" and what is not?
What business is it of yours if I choose to smoke?
Why can't you run your miserable life and let me run mine?
You argue like a woman, so I'm assuming you are.
If you, as stated, don't think that we should be excessively burdened with taxes, then we're in agreement.
So why do you rear your head on these smoking-related posts with your obnoxious, stinky, none-too-bright-posts other than to make obnoxious, stinky, none-too-bright "points"?
I'm all for your keeling over when you like also.
There's diversity for you.
And there you have it.
If the genes dictate it to be so, there will be a disposition toward cancer, and cigarettes will aggravate that disposition.
The reason this cannot be accepted is because there's not a damn thing we can do about our genes - yet.
Genes make us fat or skinny. Genes make us nervous or calm. Genes dictate our life.
Someday there will be a treatment to alter the genes, then we can all be perfect.
There's diversity for you."
Now, dadgummit! I'm trying to have a serious flame war here!
How can I do that and laugh?
Maybe you aren't trying to get smoking banned. But for heaven's sake, can't you grasp how insulting it is to be called "none-too-bright"? Why shouldn't we doubt your motives, when you have such a low opinion of people you don't even know, based solely on a habit which you happen to dislike?
I remember, in the old days before the Publik Skool indoctrination gained a serious foothold, nobody would have given this type the time of day.
Genes ARE the key. I come from a family with only one cancer death (non-smoker, non-drinker, agee 44) and one premature (before 80) heart disease death (age 17, cardiomyopathy from influenza).
Whatever happened to that study by the W.H.O. that supposedly downplayed the hazards of secondhand smoke?
If you don't like us voicing OUR opinion on YOUR opinion, perhaps you shouldn't voice it in the first place. Geesh. It's a two way street. If you think someone is being rude to you, and you respond in kind, why would you be surprised when it goes further?
Good golly, I hope not! LOL I don't think I could stand a world where everyone was perfect! :)
I know. But people want to think that they have more control over it than that, I guess. Understandable in one sense, but it gets out of hand when someone wants to protect me from myself, kwim?
Smoking disfigures your body, from the inside out. Especially, the change in a womans skin, because she smokes, is apparent more than the woman cares to know.
The tiniest unhealthy reddish-browning of the tiny blood vessels in her skin, are so remarkable, they are a warning, yet go unnoticed.
Interesting statistic: 9 out of 10 people who buy cigarettes at gas filling stations, are women; and among them, most do that buying on their way home from work; and after that, on their way out for the evening.
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Oh PLEASE!! Give me a break!!! I am nearly 51 yrs old and am constantly being thought to be 35. My skin is flawless, moist, few wrinkles and healthy!! Maybe you should consider a whole lot of other factors before you attack cigs cause it sure hasn't effected me!!
AGAIN see post above....BS!!
Secondhand smoke: Not as unhealthy as some claim, but still obnoxious as hell.
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You people crack me up...you'll make that comment but I'd lay bets you'll sit and smell your own farts and think nothing of it!!
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