Surgeon General's Report Underlines Secondhand Smoking Dangers
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News:
The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report this week saying that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and called for legislation and other steps to make more places smoke-free, the Washington Post reported June 28.
The report said that exposure to secondhand smoke raises the risk of heart disease by 25-30 percent and the risk of lung cancer by 20-30 percent among nonsmokers.
"Restrictions on smoking can control exposures effectively, but technical approaches involving air cleaning or a greater exchange of indoor with outdoor air cannot," the report said.
"The industry has funded or carried out research that has been judged to be biased, supported scientists to generate letters to editors that criticized research publications, attempted to undermine the findings of key studies, assisted in establishing a scientific society with a journal, and attempted to sustain controversy even as the scientific community reached consensus," the report said.
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