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smoked one cigarette! Perhaps
many smokers do not fully realize
that their cast-off smoke is ac–
tually harming others.
One prosmoking newspaper
columnist, Jeffrey Hart, survey–
ing recent no-smoking- in-public–
places laws asked: "What's going
on? 1 think we can forget about
the health aspect."
Oh no we can't! Heart disease,
lung cancer, emphysema and birth
defects are all caused by smoking
and those wbo smoke in the pres–
ence of others are subjecting them
to these deadly risks.
How many smokers realize
that smoke from a burning ciga–
rette contains ingredients which
sound as if they were taken from
a chemical warfare arsenal?*
Causes lllness
The tobacco companies would
have you believe that cast-off (or
sidestream as it is sometimes
called) smoke is just an an–
noyance, like bad breath or bark–
ing dogs. Ridiculous. Twice as
much respiratory illness occurs in
children of smoking parents as
nonsmoking parents.
Studies on animals show that
rabbits exposed to cast-off smoke
from 20 cigarettes a day for two
to five years developed emphyse–
ma. Rats exposed to cast-off
smoke for 45 minutes a day for
two to six months developed
twice the number of tumors as
nonexposed rats.
According to Dr. Raymond
Slavin of St. Louis University and
the American Academy of Aller–
gy, "There is no question that
nonsmokers can develop toxic lev–
els of carbon monoxide in smoke–
filled rooms."
According to a recent study
• Cast-off smoke contains: hydroquinone,
methacrolein, methyl alcohol, methyl–
amine, nickel compounds, pyridine, car–
bon dioxide, carbon monoxide, crotonomi–
trile, dimethylamine, endrin, ethylamine,
furfural, cadmium, metbyl nitrite, ammo–
nia, formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, ben–
zo(a)pyrene, nicotine, DDT, ethane, acet–
ylene, methanol, nitrogen dioxide, ace–
tone, methyl chloride, phenol, cresol,
methane, isoprene, propane, acrolein, ac–
etaldehyde, ethylene, methyl ethyl ketone,
" tar," hydrogen cyanide, hydrocyanic
acid, nitric oxide, acetonitrile, benzene 2,
3, butadione and butylamine.
32
by researchers at the University
of California at San Diego, cast–
off smoke damages the small
airways or alveolar sacs of the
lung. These sacs are responsible
for putting oxygen into the
bloodstream. The researchers
found that pollutants in cast-off
smoke irritate and cut these
sacs' delicate membranes.
Sorne people, of course, don't
need scientific studies to know
that cast-off smoke makes them
ill. A former accounting clerk at
an Air Force base in Texas, for
example, had to quit her job
because cigarette smoke gave her
sore throat, laryngitis, hearing
problems, nosebleeds and sinus
infections.
Nonsmokers Get lt Worse
Smokers not only subject others
to the same health risks they
subject themselves to, but they
actually subject those around
them to
worse
risks.
Cast-off smoke contains twice
as much tar and nicotine, three
times as much of a certain kind of
benozopyrene (a suspected cancer
agent), five times as much carbon
monoxide (which robs the blood
of life-giving oxygen), and 46
times as much ammonia as the
smoke the smoker inhales! (ac–
cording to the U.S. Department
of Health, Education and Wel–
fare).
Then there's cadmium. No
matter how little you inhale,
cadmium stays in your lungs
forever!
It
accumulates in the
lungs, liver and kidneys. Emphy-
.serna victims have excess levels
of cadmium. According to the
Lung Association, sorne "re–
search has shown that there is
even more cadmium in the
smoke that drifts off the burning
end of the cigarette than in the
drag the smoker inhales."
And a recent study conducted
by the British government shows
that a nonsmoker receives a larger
dose of tar and nicotine than the
smoker himself.
Nonsmokers Strike Back
Many countries have adopted
antismoking laws over the past
decade. Most of these laws mere-
ly require health warnings on cig–
arette packs and place restrictions
on advertising. In sorne places,
however, the right of the non–
smoker to breathe noncigarette–
polluted air is being respected:
In West Germany two states
try to separate smoking from
nonsmoking public employees.
In Argentina, there are smok–
ing baos in public transportation,
as there are in Great Britain. In
Canada, nonsmokers' rights
groups ar.e lobbying for nonsmok–
ing areas in public transportation,
restaurants, public meeting places
and food stores.
In the United States, Arizona
became the first state to han
smoking in public areas, specifi–
cally elevators, indoor theaters,
libraries, art museums, concert
halls and buses. The han also
includes school buildings, waiting
rooms, restrooms, lobbies and
hallways of health care facilities.
Later Minnesota enacted its
own clean-air act, which requires
a smoke-free area in aJl. public
places. At last count, 33 states
and 225 cities in the United
States have passed sorne kind of
law restricting smoking to sepa–
rate areas.
The courts have also, albeit
reluctantly and slowly, begun to
realize that smoking in the pres–
ence of a nónsmoker is a kind of
assault and battery. A New Jer–
sey Superior Court has ordered
one public utility to prohibit
smoking in an office where one
of the employees suffers nausea,
vomiting and eye irritation from
prolonged daily exposure. In Los
Angeles, a school district em–
ployee was able to collect unem–
ployment insurance after be quit
his job because he had to sit
between two smokers, aggravat–
ing a bronchial condition.
Such laws and court actions
are hardly extreme, nor do they
stem, as sorne smokers claim,
because nonsmokers can't stand
to see smokers enjoying them–
selves. By God's civil law given
to ancient Israel, assault and
battery-which is what smoking
in the presence of others really
is-was severely condemned.
"Cursed be he that smiteth bis
The
PLAIN TRUTH