California tar ett steg till

Läste idag en artikel som var ganska intressant. California har tagit ett steg till i sitt arbetet med miljön och har bestämt att anse andra-hands rökning som luftförorening. Ett ganska radikalt grepp. Läs själva:

Calif. declares secondhand smoke a pollutant
Decision puts tobacco exposure in same category as diesel exhaust,
arsenic

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 8:01 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2006

SACRAMENTO – California became the first state to declare secondhand
smoke a toxic air pollutant Thursday, citing its link to breast cancer.
Experts said the decision may have more impact worldwide than it does in
the largely smoke-free state.

The decision by the California Air Resources Board puts environmental
tobacco smoke in the same category as diesel exhaust, arsenic and
benzene.

Scientific studies in recent years have warned about the health impact
from second-hand smoke and linked it to a wide array of ailments
including heart disease, lung cancer and other respiratory ailments, as
well as breast cancer.

”I think there is no question that this puts California way ahead,” said
John Froines, chairman of the Air Resources Board’s Scientific Review
Panel.

”To actually have the major air pollution agency in the state of
California to list ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) as a toxic air
contaminant is going to have immense impact, we think, in terms of
public education around other states,” he said. ”It will clearly lead to
regulatory changes within the state.”

The unanimous decision relied on a September report that found a sharply
increased risk of breast cancer in young women exposed to secondhand
smoke. It also links drifting smoke to premature births, asthma and
heart disease, other cancers, and numerous health problems in children.

”If people are serious about breast cancer, they have to deal with
secondhand smoke. That’s what this is all about,” said Dr. Stanton
Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control, Research and
Education at the University of California, San Francisco. He reviewed
the science behind Thursday’s decision. ”This is a seminal,
international document. It’s impossible to underestimate what a big deal
this is.”

Effects of passive smoke
The report by scientists at California’s Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment draws on more than 1,000 other studies of the effects
of passive smoke. It blamed secondhand smoke for 4,000 deaths each year
in California from lung cancer or heart disease alone.

The most significant new finding is that young women exposed to
secondhand smoke increase their risk of developing breast cancer between
68 percent and 120 percent. The disease kills about 40,000 women in the
United States each year.