News Items

News Item - February 2006

"California Identifies Second-Hand Smoke as a "Toxic Air Contaminant."

On January 26, 2006 the California Air Resources Board (ARB) formally identified environmental tobacco smoke or second-hand smoke, as a Toxic Air Contaminant. "This new report reaffirms many of the adverse health effects associated with environmental tobacco smoke, especially in children who live in homes where smoking occurs," said ARB Chairman, Dr. Robert Sawyer. "It also raises new concerns about its effects on women."

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has been now been proven to have links to a number of adverse health effects, including some specific to children and infants. These include premature births, low birth-weight babies, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Other effects of environmental tobacco smoke on children include the induction and exacerbation of asthma, and infections of the middle-ear and respiratory system. "The Air Resources Board's action rightfully puts second-hand tobacco smoke in the same category as the most toxic automotive and industrial air pollutants," Director Joan Denton (Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment) said. "Californians, especially parents, would not willingly fill their homes with motor vehicle exhaust, and they should feel the same way about tobacco smoke." Having identified that environmental tobacco smoke as a toxic air contaminant, the California Air Resources Board will evaluate the need for action to reduce exposures.

In 2005 the California Air Resources Board produced a draft Report on Indoor Air Pollution in California which stated " California adults spend an average of 87 percent of their time indoors, and children under 12 years of age spend about 86 percent of their time indoors. .... the trapping effect of buildings, and people's proximity to indoor sources of emissions, there is a much higher likelihood that people will be exposed to indoor pollutants than outdoor pollutants. Investigators have calculated that pollutants emitted indoors have a 1000-fold greater chance of being inhaled than do those emitted outdoors"

and "Children may be especially vulnerable to poor indoor air quality due to several factors. Children's physiology and developing bodies make them more susceptible to chemicals that affect development and lung function. Their immune systems are not fully developed, and their growing organs are more easily harmed. Additionally, infants and children inhale more air relative to their size than do adults at a given level of activity, so that they inhale a larger dose of pollutants than do adults in the same environment."

• Read the Press Release.   pub. January 2006.
  
  
• Read the draft Report on Indoor Air Pollution in California   pub. February 2005.