Some much-needed progress is being made on reducing the exposure of people to environmental tobacco smoke. This can be empirically tested by checking the presence of a product of nicotine called cotinine that forms in the body a person is exposed to smoke. This chemical persists in the body longer than nicotine. It can be measured in blood, saliva, urine, or hair, but most tests are done on blood. Scientists have tested blood samples of nonsmokers at random for levels of cotinine for more than a decade.
In 2002, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that levels of cotinine in nonsmokers’ blood have plunged more than 70 percent since the early 1990’s. Such studies show a dramatic reduction of the general public’s exposure to secondhand smoke. However, there are still too many people, especially young people, who continue to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. The evidence is clear: Smoke is dangerous to our health and to the health of those around us.
Secondhand smoke has nearly the same effect on nonsmokers as smoke has on smokers. It is by far the worst source the worst source of pollution to which most people will ever be exposed. Some experts, however, dispute the evidence in some cases, as for example in the context of lung cancer: … [T]he strength of the evidence linking passive smoking to lung cancer has clearly been overstated by the conventional medical view….
[I]t seems impossible to conclude with any certainty either the ETS causes lung cancer or that it does not do so. (Lee 17) No one, however, has any doubts regarding the deleteriousness of firsthand smoking. But since it is more or less the same smoke that goes into secondhand smoking, simple logic and common sense are sufficient to ascertain the true dangers of passive smoking. Studies are only helpful in determining the quantity of harm done, the numbers and percentages and so on, but the quality of it remains the same.
Even if there is only 5 percent or even 1 percent additional risk of contracting lung cancer in nonsmoking spouses married to heavy smokers, for example, smoking in the presence of other people, whether they belong to one’s family or not, remains just as much a horribly obnoxious practice as when there is a vastly much more additional risk. Smoke in the environment is not just innocuous filth, it is carbon monoxide and cyanide and much more. Of course, smoking is no more “dirty” than gas fumes, the sewerage pumped into our bays, industrial effluents. It might be lethal… (Stern 224)
Works Cited:
http://ash.org/.“Passive Smoking: A summary of the evidence. ” Action on Smoking and Health. May 2004. May 4, 2007 <http://www. ash. org. uk/html/passive/html/passive. html> BBC News Online. “Q&A: Passive smoking. ” British Broadcasting Corporation. October 18, 2004. May 4, 2007 <http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/health/medical_notes/3235820. stm> Britton, John. ABC of Smoking Cessation. Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishing, 2004 Carroll, Sue; Brealey, Sue. “Joy of Smoking” London : John Blake Publishing, 2005 Christopher, James. “Escape from Nicotine Country: How to Stop Smoking Painlessly. ” Amherst, NY : Prometheus Books, 1999