High incidence of passive smoking found..

February 14, 2008 - Serving staff in bars and restaurants could well be passively (ETS, secondhand, involuntary) smoking the equivalent of up to 38 cigarettes a day, a study has found. The report, released by the Valais Anti-Smoking Centre, is said to be one of the first of its kind to quantify the effects of inhaling second-hand smoke. Researchers gave out to the public 1,500 special nicotine-measuring devices in badge form at the beginning of 2007; 630 were given back six months later. It was found that almost all the badge wearers, aged from three months to 82 years old, were subject to second-hand smoke. The most badly affected were serving staff - inhaling the equivalent of 15 to 38 cigarettes per day, depending on their place of work. 5.7 per cent were barely affected and the rest were subjected to the equivalent of one to more than ten cigarettes a day. The results of the study have been published in the Swiss Medical Review. ( High incidence of passive smoking found.., swissinfo.ch, 2/13/2008) Some related news briefs: Acute asthma death associated with work-related ETS.., WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008.. and Congratulations to Richard H. Carmona, M.D., MPH,. Click on image to enlarge..