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World-renowned health organizations have concluded that
<br />secondhand smoke is a significant health danger:
<br />American Medical Association
<br />U.S. Surgeon General
<br />Mayo Clinic
<br />Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
<br />of the most noteworthy include:
<br />National Cancer Institute
<br />American Lung Association
<br />World Health Organization
<br />U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
<br />Over the past 20 years, hundreds of scientific studies have
<br />shown the dangers associated with secondhand smoke. A few
<br />1986: The U.S. Surgeon General released one of the first studies on the dangers of secondhand smoke.
<br />It reported that involuntary smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy non-
<br />smokers.'
<br />1992: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded that widespread exposure to secondhand
<br />smoke is a serious and substantial public health danger. Specifically, it reported that secondhand
<br />smoke is a human lung carcinogen, responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths a year in U.S.
<br />non-smokers.Z
<br />1997: A National Cancer Institute monograph linked significant health effects, including coronary heart
<br />disease, nasal sinus cancer and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome with exposure to secondhand
<br />smoke.3
<br />2006: The U.S. Surgeon General released the most comprehensive scientific report ever produced on
<br />the health harms of secondhand smoke. The report states that "massive and conclusive scientific
<br />evidence documents adverse effects of involuntary smoking on children and adults, including
<br />cancer and cardiovascular diseases in adults, and adverse respiratory effects in both children and
<br />adults." The report further concludes that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand
<br />smoke."
<br />New research shows secondhand smoke is even more
<br />dangerous than previously believed.
<br />2004: A Helena, Montana, study made a connection between secondhand smoke and heart disease.
<br />The study observed that hospital admissions for heart attacks declined by approximately 40
<br />percent during asix-month period during which a comprehensive smoke-free air law was in effect,
<br />and rebounded after the ordinance was suspended.5 In 2005, a similar study conducted in
<br />Pueblo, Colo., confirmed the findings from Helena.` As a result of the Helena study, the Centers
<br />for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning, saying that people at risk of heart disease
<br />should avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.'
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<br />For more than two decades, the nation's most respected health organizations have come to the same conclusions
<br />about secondhand smoke: it's dangerous and deadly. Each year, the body of evidence continues to grow.
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