I'm a fascist, because I object you putting poison and toxins into the air I breathe? My, my, my aren't we emotional.
Below is a list of the amount of selected chemicals, emitted in sidestream smoke, that a
restaurant employee, weighing approximately 65 kg (140 lbs), would directly inhale (not the total
exposure amount) over an 8-hour shift in a 300m2 area.
All chemicals marked in bold type are carcinogens (they cause cancer). All of the chemicals
below cause adverse health effects.
These calculations assume 10 smokers per 300m2 each smoking 2 cigarettes per hour,1 totaling
160 cigarettes over the 8-hour time period, and take into account standard ventilation rates.2
Further information about these calculations can be found at: www.smokefree.
ca/eng_issues/etschems2.htm
Table 1: Amount of Chemicals Inhaled by A Restaurant Employee
CHEMICAL
amount
(ug) CHEMICAL
amount
(ug) CHEMICAL
amount
(ng)
carbon monoxide 5606 1,3-butadiene 25 resorcinol 123
tar 3128 hydroquinone 24 benzo[a]pyrene 18
nicotine 678 methyl ethyl ketone 23 cadmium 9.7
acetaldehyde 207 catechol 22 1-aminonaphthalene 8.5
nitric oxide 190 propionaldehyde 17 chromium 7.1
isoprene 151 cresols 15 lead 6.0
acetone 121 hydrogen cyanide 14 2-aminonaphtalene 5.2
toluene 66 styrene 13 nickel 4.2
formaldehyde 54 butyraldehyde 12 3-aminobiphenyl 2.4
phenol 44 acrylonitrile 11 4-aminobiphenyl 1.4
acrolein 40 crotonaldehyde 10
benzene 36 quinoline 1.3
pyridine 33
1 Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights: Questions and Answers Regarding Eliminating Smoking in
Restaurants. February 5, 1992.
2 ASHRAE Standard (62-1981) office ventilation rate of 10L/second per person (assuming 7 persons per
100 meters squared floor space). According to American’s for Nonsmoker’s Rights: Protecting Nonsmokers
from Secondhand Smoke (fact sheet), these ventilation rates would need to be improved 270 times, at
enormous cost, in order to reduce the carcinogenic risk from tobacco smoke to federal (US) accepted levels.
This would “create a virtual windstorm indoors”.
http://www.smoke-free.ca/factsheets/pdf/8%20hour%20shift%20fact%20sheet.PDF