The Trek Prop Zone: The Trek Prop Zone -> Second Hand Smoke....

At my place of work, smoking is prohibited within the buildings, however, designated smoking areas exists for those who feel they need to smoke, the problem is, the smoke still makes it in the building via folks coming and going in and out of the buildings opening and closing the doors.

So this brings me to Second-hand smoke, is it still dangerous?

The U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona last year issued a comprehensive scientific report which concludes that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. The finding is of major public health concern due to the fact that nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

The report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, finds that even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause immediate harm. The report says the only way to protect nonsmokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors. Fair enough. However, the Surgeon General's comments provide no macroscopic health-risk perspective for policymakers to utilize. Is, for example, second-hand smoke statistically more dangerous than drinking alcohol? Than driving? Than skydiving?

If these items carry as much or more danger than why not ban them, too? Oh, wait- we tried that by something called Prohibition. Now that was a real success. The fact is that everything in life carries risk (there is a saying, "Life is hazardous to your health"). Second-hand smoke entails risk but, as noted, so does being a passenger in a car. The Surgeon-General's report, when judged in a relative-risk perspective, really does not provide much guidance as to which risks should be the subject of limited public regulatory resources.