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Speaking via video link from Sudbury, Dr. Roberta Ferrence outlined the recent history of science that connected smoking and an array of illnesses from cancer to reduced fertility since the 1960s. It‘s only in the last 20 years that studies are connecting those diseases to second-hand smoke, said Ferrence, executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit and a University of Toronto public health science professor. “You can see the direction it‘s going in,” she said. A new study released Wednesday shows a connection between smoking and a 44-per-cent increased risk for Type 2 diabetes. Other findings suggest mothers‘ smoking before or after pregnancy may reduce daughters‘ fertility by two-thirds. “At this point it‘s very likely smoking causes all cancers,” she said. “Every year, we add more to the list. “Everybody knows smoking is bad for you, but if you talk to the average person, they don‘t know about ear infections, they don‘t know about breast cancer,” Ferrence said. Her tobacco research unit did urine tests on Toronto bar workers before and after a smoking ban was enacted. Post-ban, they found significant exposure from patios and smoke wafting in from smokers congregating outside doors, she said. Newfoundland has banned smoking on restaurant patios, and lineups, doorways and patios will be important policy targets, Ferrence said. People generally get the idea that air pollution hangs around, but also seem to think cigarette smoke vanishes, she said, noting that smoke forms a plume overhead and rains back down in the same area. Sitting within a metre or two of a smoker exposes one to substantial second-hand smoke, as much as if sitting indoors, Ferrence explained from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine‘s Laurentian University campus. Smoking has been banned in public places, but there are still many places the public is not so willing to entertain prohibitions, such as in vehicles and private homes, said Ferrence. “But I think changes are coming quickly,” she said. The average child spends 50 minutes a day in a vehicle, and increasingly, parents are opting to drive children to school and then play chauffeur for lessons and activities. Being in a car with a smoker is at least as bad as being in a smoke-filled bar, Ferrence said. On Thursday, Nova Scotia became the first Canadian province to make it illegal to smoke in a vehicle carrying anyone under the age of 19. The bill passed the final reading with the support of all three parties. Similar legislation is up for debate in Ontario and B.C. Other areas where smoking bans could be coming are beaches and parks, where there is often a high density of people and cigarette butts containing cadmium and lead end up on the ground where children play. She also expects policy coming for outdoor workplaces like restaurant patios and construction sites. There is discussion about multi-unit dwellings and smoke spread via balconies and central heating systems, she said, and though there aren‘t bans on smoking in apartment buildings, some real estate companies are enacting their own prohibitions. “We already legislate in private homes,” she said about government reluctance to ban smoking there, noting that a fire inspector can require residents to have smoke detectors in their homes. A “public health approach” is needed regardless of where people live and work, she said. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |