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Nonsmoking workers immediately absorb carcinogen because of secondhand smoke |
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15:28, June 29, 2007 |
Offering alarming new evidence onthe dangers of permitting smoking in the workplace, scientists have found that nonsmoking restaurant and bar employees absorb a potent carcinogen -- not considered safe at any level -- while working in places where they had to breathe tobacco smoke from customers and co-workers.
In a study to be published in the August 2007 edition of the American Journal of Public Health, investigators at the Multnomah County Health Department and Oregon Department of Human Services report that elevated levels of NNK showed up in the urine of nonsmoking employees shortly after they encountered secondhand smoke during their shifts. The carcinogen, NNK, is found in the body only as a result of using tobacco or breathing secondhand smoke.
Moreover, levels of NNK, which is known to cause lung cancer, increased by 6 percent for each hour of work. "This is the first study to show increases in NNK as a result of a brief workplace exposure, and that levels of this powerful carcinogen continue to increase the longer the person works in a place where smoking is permitted. NNK is a major cancer causing agent from tobacco products, and workers should not have to be exposed to any dose ofthis very dangerous chemical," said Michael Stark, the study's lead author.
"The science shows that the threat of disease from secondhand smoke is no longer a distant threat. The amount of this carcinogenincreases even within a single work shift," added Stark.
In a related study in the same issue of the Journal, experts inpublic health law warn that as scientists continue to provide evidence of harm, employers could soon face a clear choice: eithervoluntarily ban smoking in their workplace or face an increasing wave of costly legal actions.
"The science is making it easier and easier to persuade courts to sanction employers who continue to allow smoking," said Marice Ashe, the lead author of the legal analysis.
Source: Xinhua
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