Tobacco exposure more prevalent in multi-unit housing due to poor ventilation, research finds
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comKids in apartments get more secondhand smoke
Seeded on Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:30 PM EST (msnbc.com)
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Someone thought this warranted a research study???
Come on...
in other news..... you cannot breathe under water
It's ok, the mercury in their vaccines protects them.
Apparently these children don't breathe the air which is polluted by autos, trucks, and manufacturing practices of highly polluting off-shore manufacturers.Smoking may be harmful to one's health, but so is breathing our polluted air.
No, it's got to be secondhand cigarette smoke, no matter where it comes from.
Diesel fumes and off-shore manufacturing pollution do not put cotinine, the metabolite of nicotine, in children's blood or urine. My guess would be that if one tested for exposure to those pollutants, there would be little or no difference by housing type.
Gary Clark
Is this what smokers should tell themselves so they don't feel so bad forcing their nasty habits on everyone they encounter?
Let me get this straight.... less than 25% of the population smokes; yet 84% of children in apartments, 80% of children in condominiums and 70% of children in private homes tested positive? Did naturally occuring nicotine which is found in foods such as potatoes and tomatoes affect the results? I do not feel I have a right to smoke in other people's homes or around their children; what I do in my own home is another story. The only reason industries such as airlines and hotels have jumped on the non-smoking wagon is they can spend less on cleaning, which does not mean the space is cleaner or the air quality is better, it just doesn't smell like smoke. The country is heading towards making smoking illegal; which is so effective, right? What do you think will happen to all the government services that are dependant on the really high taxes that come from cigarette sales? That money will go into the pockets of criminals who will sell cigarettes. Just like in the prohibiton era there will be a market.
What about the kids that live in cities or suburbs? What about all the crap that is belched out of motorized vehicles?
They won't do a study on that though. We can't make the soccer moms feel bad that they just bought that Escalade.
You really believe that there have been no studies on that?
You obviously have access to the interwebs... Try a search.
Yet, no one's calling for an SUV ban crying "won't someone please think about the children!" are they?
Smokers are just an easy target to twist the screws on. According to most of the people in the US, we can change cigarettes any way we want without any consequences. FSC are a fine example of this as well as the ridiculous amount of taxes charged per pack.
On one hand, they want all the smokers to quit. Yet, on the other hand, they are using tax money generated by smokers to help fund health care for kids.
Does that make any sense? What happens when all the smokers quit or die? How will they help the children then?
I think it should be illegal to keep an SUV in one's apartment. The exhaust would definitely hurt residents in other units.
LTKiwi
You should try heading to the library and accessing some scientific journals. Of course they do studies on that. It just doesn't mean anything to you so you don't notice it. Guessing you're a smoker, though, & this one just hit a nerve.
C'mon! We can't tell people they can't smoke in their own home! We have taken away every other place from them!
Where does it say that people cannot smoke in their own homes?
(However it is not only rude, but it is deplorable and not fair to your children to smoke around them.)
Change doesn't happen overnight, it happens in small little baby steps. This is simply the next tiny step towards a government that dictates what people can and cannot do in their own home, "for their own good" of course. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but the day will come when the government will outlaw smoking indoors entirely, or maybe altogether. The same will happen with eating habits, where eventually enough propaganda is released that the government will have no choice but to dictate your diet. This isn't tinfoil hat paranoia, it's simply an awareness of history and an extrapolation of the current path we've taken.
I think privacy rights in the home are important. If cigarette smoke would respect the privacy of other people's homes this wouldn't be an issue. But, alas, it travels from apartment to apartment and into the bodies of kids in homes where there are no smokers.
Strange that society managed to survive all these years without all the do-goodies protecting little Johnny in his insular world so that he can become a world class Wii competitor in the imaginary future;best to save his pharmacopia-infused food supply,water supply,than waste more time on smoking,that way he might live long enough to choose to smoke a cigar or a blunt for his own pleasure.....
Terri-2735829
Right. But it's perfectly reasonable to tell these children that they have no choice but to breathe these carcinogens in b/c the rights of other people to smoke (which is VOLUNTARY) outweigh their rights to breathe (which is INVOLUNTARY). As a non-smoker who grew up in a smoker household and now has to carry around an inhaler...I have a little problem with your priorities here.
Smokers are unbelievably selfish & think only of their own "rights." How bout you all take up some other death-causing habit that ISN'T forced onto the unwilling who happen to be w/in so many feet of you? Like, say, gargling arsenic? I won't sign a petition to ban that, promise!
rtwngrsrchknsht
There's no obvious sense in your ramblings. What is your point exactly?
No $hit! You don't say. It doesn't take an in-depth research study to figure that out.
It doesn't sound like the "research" was very in-depth. Did they bother to consider whether or not these apartments had easy access to the outside?
Seriously? Why don't you read the study. Of COURSE other factors are taken into consideration...this is how you do an actual study. This is how you get data. Otherwise it's merely an opinion.
Did you read the article? The researcher's couldn't even determine whether the children in the study were exposed to cigarette smoke in the apartment buildings or elsewhere. So don't just assume all factors that should have been included in the study were. Maybe learn to think for yourself a little.
Has anyone looked into the socioeconomics of families who live in apartments, and if the adults living there are more likely to smoke?
Factors such as socioeconomic status, sex, race, age, etc are typically part of these type of studies, so properly matched controls can be used to eliminate them as confounding factors.
These were homes in which nobody living there smoked, according to the study. The data came from a large national survey called The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Just another example of the War On Smokers we get targeted for everything yet we pay crazy Taxes on Cigs. NOW THEY TRYIN TO ANGLE PEOPLE From SMOKEING IN THERE OWN DAMN HOUSE!!!!! This is just another example of THE OBAMANATION This countrys turnin in to When dos it end they even Invented a new trem 3rd hand smoke thats being in room with someone who smokes The Day the Govt says i can't Smoke in my own Apt is the day I Start Shooting People Starting with All you Liberal Scumbags !!!!
You just threatened to commit murder in the name of cigarettes. It's no wonder the government is able to slowly chip away at our individual freedoms. People like you make their case for them.
TK67, that's the least intelligent comment I've ever read on the NewsVine. What does this have to do with Obama (who, by the way, smokes). Remind me never to live in an apartment next to you. Cigarette smoking is not tied to political affiliation, by the way. Look it up. And try Spell Check every once in a while. It will make your half-cocked idea look a little more worthwhile to read.
TK67
I'm sorry...the war on smokers? How bout the smokers' war on everyone else?
How about smokers can't stop puffing long enough to step outside of their own selfish wants & needs to see that not only do they affect the health of all around them, they affect how our taxes & health care dollars are spent when these smokers grow sick, lose their insurance, & need someone to pay for their chronic long-term conditions. How about how they affect the look of the parks and streets that everyone else has to drive on when they carelessly flick their ashes & cigarette butts out the windows of their cars or while walking into a building - as though the world is their trash can? How about this war?
Or are you too busy inhaling to notice there are other people on this planet who also have rights & they're dang tired of whiny smokers infringing on them. The world does not belong to smokers - take up some other addiction that doesn't affect the unwilling & take their rights and choices away.
In the meantime, complain all you want but the proof is in the pudding. Your smoking affects others involuntarily. It is YOU infringing on OTHERS' rights...not the other way around.
p.s. What the heck does Obama have to do w/ this? Focus, buddy. Let the smoke clear out so you can see article subject & know what keys you're typing on.
Can a neighbor's second-hand smoke cause children's inflamed tonsils plus children's tonsillectomy, or the surgical removal of usually unhealthy tonsils? What neighbor of mine might have caused me to suffer from a tonsillectomy? Based upon the cities of my youth, victimizing neighbors who might have caused my tonsillectomy were probably located in one or more of the following cities: Boston, Massachusetts, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and/or Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Can I sue neighbors for causing my tonsillectomy on account of my second-hand smoke reactions?
We have "No Smoking" signs hung up on the walls of our hotel hallways, yet some of the hotel's tenants, guests, and even some or all of the property management team smoke indoors. The atmospheric smoke odor is sometimes noticeably strong to me not only in the hotel's restrooms and hallways but also apparently from inside at least some of the hotel's rooms, as it wafts, for instance, from the hotel's rooms adjacent to and two doors down from mine. Why are the non-smokers being atypically rude to me? They sometimes even blow smoke towards me outdoors, for instance, on the sidewalk or at bus stops.
In spite of the tenants' poor behavior, I remain a different, non-smoking resident because I can afford the hotel total rent plus utilities sum. Apparently, from what I understand from reading a recent newspaper article published from what I remember to be probably within the past year in The Bakersfield Californian (http://www.bakersfield.com), utilities typically cost at least $500 per month, not "next to nothing" like many real estate agents have pushed onto me during most of my previous apartment hunts. Why have several agents been lying to me about the cost of utilities? Just as strangely, presumably strangers, passing off as PG&E representatives remarking about a gas bill, which, by the way, only my hotel owner would have the authority to enforce, have been calling me and requesting return calls. What would they (you, if you're reading this) do with my return calls? Would they (again you, if you're still reading this) pass off the bills as my own?
Careful,they're monitoring your activities from the microchip implanted in your fillings and creating mutants from your tonsil tissues(thats why all the gas was charged to you,a natural gas powered mutation device) oooooooo weeeeeeeeee,oooooooooo!
wow.
Why should medical professionals and state governments get to decide who can smoke in a multiunit building?
Why not let coop boards and condo associations pass indoor smoking bans rather than have the state decide how individual communities MUST handle this.
In theory I agree with you. Unfortunately, though, if people on the condo board smoke, they won't go for it. We have a smoke-filled condo thanks to the chain smokers below us and we contacted our association to see what we could do as far as additional insulation, etc and they not only said that they were sorry the smoke made us "uncomfortable" but they can't tell people what to do in their home. They gave us no further suggestions except to ask the people to not let their smoke seep upstairs (how is that even possible since it rises?).
Increasingly, condo boards are putting no-smoking provisions into by-laws because it has a dramatic effect on property values and can lower master insurance policy premiums. And yes, the condo association and landlords can institute no-smoking policies and you can tell people what they can do in their homes when it affects other residents.
Set fire to their Snuggies at their meetings!Smoke-em up crispy!
IlliniProgrammer
Dude all they're doing is reporting data. You're the one jumping to conclusions re: bans & government action...which makes one wonder why you see that as the solution. Perhaps b/c it's the only way to protect others from the selfish acts of smokers? I don't know. But data is data...whether you like it or not.
EMS, people will usually do what makes them the most money. Did you ask whether smoking was allowed before you moved into your condo?
Saws, the ARTICLE mentioned that the study may be used to support smoking bans in multi-unit housing. Some cities have already banned smoking in multi-unit housing.
All the more reason to have a permanent ban on all smoking in every hotel. My husband I refuse to stay at any hotel that is not 100% non smoking. It doesn't matter if you are in a non smoking room or not, the smoke still gets into these rooms through the ventilation system. Thanks for reporting the facts. Smoking needs to be band completely! Smokers have no rights when their smoke invades the space of others period, no matter if they are indoors or outdoors!
To begin with, this article was addressing smoking in apartment units--not hotels. They're talking about a persons permanent home. Government has no right in there. Maybe you would like to substitute the word "complainers" have no rights where you have written "smokers". Everyone has RIGHTS. Yours don't trump mine. (And for your information, I don't smoke.)
Of course the government has a right to dictate health and safety rules in people's homes. Sanitary and building codes and the law of nuisance have been around for a long time.
mjb08
Nor do smokers' rights trump non-smokers', even though they have for so very long. Frankly I don't give a whup if a smoker wants to kill himself. However his/her "right" to smoke stops at the point that it infringes on my right to breathe or not involuntarily take in the carcinogenic effects of his nasty habit. Period.
As for apartments vs hotels, surely you're not suggesting the conclusion would be the opposite? If so, you need to head to the ol' library & read some scientific articles.
Side note - why is it I so often have to suggest to people that they read some scientific articles? How is it there is so much ignorance in the world that people aren't already doing it & forming educated opinions accordingly? Sad.
Maybe suggesting that people read scientific articles just makes you feel better about yourself. You don't even have the attention span to read the article or the comment that you're referring to.
Smoke is no joke.
A new study brought to you by the Journal of Pseudo Science has discovered a correlation between the degree of anti-smoking zeal and a person's communist propensity. When Dr. Busybody was asked how he felt about the study, he stated, "The ends justify the means. First we condition people to allow us to think for them, all the while systematically banning or hyper regulating items we do not feel are good for people or find offensive. The next item on our agenda is fast food, and soda. After which, we are going to seek high taxes on meat products to reduce the amount of meat eaten, and animal murder. I joyously see a future when we can lock down everybody into automatons; after which, there will be peace on earth. Just think, everyone will be equalized to the same level, and nobody will be able to do anything that could cause harm to themselves. Rejoice in the anti-tobacco rhetoric Comrade! It is one of the first steps into our glorious revolution to manipulate and control the human condition." So, does the amount of conviction that hyper-anti-tobacco zealots express show how much Communist propensity they have...? There is strong scientific evidence that points to yes...Tune it next week for, "Bigfoot Once Existed, Time Traveling Forth Hand Tobacco Smoke Decimates Species."
Careful there big guy or hybrid girl and her husband will have you "band".Wonder if her batteries are a smokin'?
Who cares? This is not suppose to be a communist country where you are told what you can and can't do in your own home. These do-gooders need to leave people alone and stop meddling in everyone's lives. This kind of thing has become insidious in our society. It starts out of intentions to do good and winds up robbing everyone of the very freedoms that our service men and women have fought and died for. Enough is enough!
I lived in an apartment that allowed smoking upstairs so I was downstairs. Everytime my neighbor upstairs smoked I would smell it. Also if it was during the summer when the windows were open then the smoke would come through my windows. I was miserable. I no longer live in apartments but with respect to everyone, it is a public building, meaning that there are multiple bodies in the building and smoking should be banned from apartments.
Personally, I'm non-smoker and I think it's a good idea. I live in an apartment, I am a heart transplant recipient and I don't need to be Inhaling Smoke from the people above me. My family can't afford to live in a house. So maybe there should be a law that says you can only smoke in your own house (not around your children), and not in apartments or in a duplex.
I live in an apartment and there used to be a lady who lived beneath me who chained smoked all day long, then when her husband came home from work it was like he tried to catch up with her. My apartment reeked of cigarette smoke. I complained to the landlady but she said there was nothing she could do. I have bought air purifiers and have caulked every crack and crevice I can find where smoke might be coming through. Fortunately they eventually moved out. But I have other neighbors who smoke and occasionally I can still smell cigarette smoke in my apartment. Although it's nowhere near as bad as when the chain smoker lived in the building. Plus people smoke in the stairway so as soon as I open my door I am walking right into it. I think cigarettes are so filthy and disgusting. If it were up to me cigarettes would be illegal and banned altogether. I noticed other people posting and complaining about people trying to keep smokers from smoking in their own house, but non-smokers should have the right to breathe clean fresh air in their own home and they don't have that right because smokers do have the right to smoke in their own home. If I created a hideous smelling odor that was toxic and it infiltrated a smokers apartment maybe they could understand. But all they complain about is their rights to smoke. I hope all you smokers choke on your own smoke. Tobacco should be illegal, no one can convince me otherwise. It has absolutely no health benefits and is dangerous to every living thing that breathes in it's smoke. Smokers don't care if what they do bothers other people and since they can't be bothered to be considerate of others laws must be made to force them to be considerate and mindful of others. Sad isn't it?
Omg Kevin you definitely said it best. You are so so right. My immunosuppressent drugs are going to give me cancer eventually but I want it to be later not sooner!
I don't know what was wrong with your apartment, but I am a non-smoker and I had tenants that chain smoked constantly but I never had a whiff of tobacco smoke enter my apartment until I went into the hallway. Tell them to choke on their own smoke? You're not pessimistic or skewed in any way are you? That like me saying I hope all non-smokers die in their own narcissism. Open a window, turn on some fans and quit crying...or just move into a better apartment.
Opening windows quite often makes it worse! My neighbor below goes out to his patio to smoke....which means I have to rush and close all doors and windows on that side.
It is illegal to smoke within some number of feet from the entrance of a public building. I don't know why it is legal to smoke in the patio of an appartment!
There was a time when stickers such as "We smokers have determined that your bitching about our smoking is bad for your health" were not uncommon. Fortunately, those days are gone! :)
Once that smoke enters air (Particularly fresh air) the chemicals disperse and blow away. Basically the only thing your left with small traces of the smell. When I say trace, I'm saying so small of amounts its not to come even close to killing you. So all it is to you is an inconvenience. I find it inconvenient when my neighbor comes home at 2 a.m. opening and closing doors or the fact when he walks...he basically stomps. I can't make it illegal for him to come in past 10p.m. and for him to walk a certain way. I'm a non-smoker and cigarette smoke doesn't bother me though I can pick it up really well. "To each his own." Just because a vegetarian hates meat doesn't mean we all have to be vegetarians.
rgerger45 - actually, the chemicals do not just disappear, they settle on surfaces and are then transferred onto hands, clothes, or whatever else touches the surface. These chemicals can then be absorbed through the skin or into the mouth or eyes by transfer from the hands. Some of the toxins are the type that will accumulate in the body, so over time the levels will build up. Also the "smell" is the toxins in the air being breathed into the lungs then absorbed into the tissue and bloodstream. It's not as simple as out of sight, out of existence.
Actually there was a study a few years ago which showed that people who only smoked outside still had enough toxins on their breath/clothes etc. to be considered harmful to children.
Kevin, what a nice person you are. NOT!!!
Oh, I get it.
It's a "not" joke...
.
I've heard about those...
This, by far has to be the most ridiculous ban proposed. I can understand establishment and restaurant bans of smoking, but not apartments. These people pay their damn taxes and their bills fair and square. Who's to say that these people cannot smoke in their own apartment because of whiny, paranoid parents are pulling their hair out because there are smokers in an apartment building. For one, SHS can't stay in the air forever. The particles decay, or can stick to the walls of the ventilation system. Yes, SHS smoke is dangerous, if not as much as direct smoke..but it can't linger very far especially if filters are used in the ventilation system...after all that what they are designed for. For two, these "studies" are very crude. For one, if you're wanting to study the radioactive elements in the building...you need a control. A lot of the elements found in these apartments could have been there before...especially radioactive isotopes. For three, there are so many variables and so many are hard to track such as the apartment ventilation system, filters used, conditions of home before the new residents, biased results, rate of smoking, types of tobacco, methods used..etc. I could go on and on and these variables are hard to study.
Example..Poor people tend to die sooner than high income people. African Americans tend to die before Caucasians. Woman tend to live longer than men. People in other countries tend to die before people in other countries. So say a impoverished black male smoker in Russia dies before median age. Was it because of his income, race, gender, nationality, or smoking habits that killed him?
These cases of asthma are ALL pointed at smoking. Don't be a moron. Go outside and smell the damn air...it smells and feels horrible. Take into account of when your kids go outside. Think of the Hydrogen Cyanide they are exposed to and other poisonous substances from vehicle exhaust, factory by-products, and other contaminants in the air. I'm pretty sure the air they breath when they are outside playing and even at their own school is pretty harmful. Ever heard of Radon? Yea...pretty nasty noble gas. A big culprit in this whole damn situation is hysteria.
As long as there is proper ventilation and the landlords don't cut corners in proper ventilation systems, exposure is so small.
I know it seems like people are just "whiny" and "paranoid" but it's simply not the case. Perhaps you've never been in the situation described. I have and am trying to get out of it currently. Even if you ignored all of the extremely credible studies which point to cigarette smoke and a host of health complications and death (admitted by even the tobacco industry), you still are left with the fact that it's disgusting and makes your apt/condo stink.
Most landlords are not going to go the extra mile to install proper insulation. The smoke creeps up through the ventilation and if you open your window the smoke from the person below you blows right in the window. I am a pretty conservative person who believes in the rights of the people but I pay my own damn taxes and rent too so why don't I have a right to not have my belongings stink and my air clean to breathe?
While people do have freedom to kill themselves with their bad habits, they do not have the right to impose that bad habit on others by exposing them to the toxins produced. It has been shown that smokers have a reduced sense of smell, so they likely don't realize how much of the toxins linger on them and their car/home. With my mild asthma, I have a hard time breathing around someone who is a smoker just because of the lingering smell on their clothes.
This article is about apartments, so this is not about keeping people from smoking in the home they own. I have no problem with apartment property owners choosing to make their part or all of their property smoke-free as part of the lease agreement. That would give renters the choice to live in a smoke-free enviroment. It's horrible to be unable to enjoy the outdoors on your patio because of the smoke drifting over from your neighbor smoking nearby.
I'm sure this article is upsetting to smokers. But, the bottom line is, those of us that DON'T smoke, like babies and children don't want to smell or breath your cardigan that you inhale which then goes into your lungs forming this black gooy dripping substance that attaches itself to the walls of your lungs and packs upon layers and layers of this black shiny tar substance that soon disengages itself into your blood cells and travels throughout your body seeking out zones of which to lay out the format of a group of cells that begin multiplying into cancer.
OK. well, then did they survey the kids ages 6-18 about smoking pot? that isnt even second hand smoke. apartment units are closer together with poor vehicles per area than in neighborhoods of indivisual houses.
Marijuana would not be detected in this study. And while marijuana smoke is pungent and would also likely travel between apartments, there is little or no evidence that it is harmful like cigarette smoke is. I think any no-smoking policy should include marijuana.
Well lets twist one up,fire it off, and talk about it .....what?
I think the most appropriate answer is to designate a smoking area that is well away from the building and windows of fellow tennants.
I once smoked, and my mother died of lung cancer, so I choose not to be around smoke. Unfortunately, I found myself in the situation you mention where three women would smoke right in front of my apartment window. They were asked not to do so, but continued. Just because smoking takes place outside does not mean that it cannot get inside. And if your fellow tenant chooses to open their window or walk outside, they should be able to do so without having to inhale cigarette smoke.
Was tobacco the only thing being smoked in these apt complexes? Was testing for any other toxins conducted ? I'm sure that the smoke and emissions from Meth and other drugs could never ever be anywhere near children in apt complexes.
And of course the bullets flying by the apartments where smokers or non smokers are located, they're not near as life threatening to our children. And the search for Viable solutions to Gang violence and the drugs that rob them of asolutely everything..... well that's too dangerous to try to pursue.
I'm a 69 yr old that moved into apartment building when my husband passed. We had a smoke free building, all was fine. Then an apartment upstairs became empty and a heavy smoker moved in. My life became pure hell.....I had allergies, headaches and actually sick from all the smoke I was smelling and taking into my body. My closets and clothes smelled like smoke also. I complained and they told me ...that is her home. Well I let them know ; I paid my rent on time and this was also my home. After complaing for the fourth time and mentioning a lawyer , I finally got their attenion and they put me in a special filter ,which did help some. So after experiencing this ....I 'm sure it can not be good for children to breathe in what I did and ruin their life. I'm all for banning smoking in community housing complexes. Even my little 6lb dog was affected, always sneezing and coughing , which she did'nt do before .
Thank you for reading this...hope it helps someone else.