Comments on: Stopping The Secondhand Smoke Blues http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues EPA's Blog About Our World Fri, 17 May 2013 15:29:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Art H http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-39479 Art H Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:23:58 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-39479 While I agree that convincing kids not to pick up the habit, and that smoking outside of the house is healthier for everyone concerned, I continue to be shocked at how little the most powerful government on the planet is doing to put an end to the nearly 400,000 smoking related deaths each year.

The government and medical communities give a lot of lip service to finding solutions, but that’s all it is…lip service.

Here’s an excerpt from a very interesting article on the subject of quitting smoking…

“In June this year (2009), President Obama signed legislation that grants the FDA the right to ban toxic substances in cigarettes as well as place restrictions on the levels of nicotine additives.

Sounds like a wonderful bit of legislation to me! But WAIT…nicotine was not classified as a toxic substance by this or any other piece of legislation. The FDA was only granted the right to restrict the levels of nicotine additives, not ban it. Consequently, nicotine will be around for a long time to come. And there’s a very good reason why nicotine has not been classified as a toxic chemical with FDA approval to ban it…if the FDA was given power to ban it, the entire pharmaceutical nicotine replacement industry would be put out of business as well. And we all know who’s buttering the FDA’s toast…yep the pharmaceutical industry.”

So here is my issue with what little our government is doing, but could be doing…the medical community is 100% agreed that nicotine is a very toxic substance, so why is it not being classified as such to give the FDA the teeth it needs to end the reign of terror this substance has on the population of the world?

Well, the article excerpted makes it abundantly clear. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m tired of government lip service. It’s time to do something constructive…ban nicotine!

Just my two cents worth.

]]> By: Shawn A http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-23754 Shawn A Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:47:05 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-23754 I agree with Emily when she talks about how parents can do a lot in preventing health problems in their children by not smoking. Having a smoke free household can allow for healthier children, and possibly even set a good example that will be followed by those children.

Even if parents are smokers, simply stepping outside to smoke may also help reduce health problems. But overall, the fewer smokers, the cleaner the air, the fewer problems that are associated with smoke there will be.

I think that the biggest way to help this issue is through the continued education of the public about the negative health risks associated with smokers.

We have all heard stories about how hard it is to stop smoking, and that is why we need to advertise hard to children in their developmental years to make sure they will not develop this habit. Now obviously the teenage years are not the only time when people pick up smoking, but if we can convince a significant number of these people to not pick up a cigarette, it would be a great success.

Thanks Emily for the post!

]]> By: Alicia W http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-23072 Alicia W Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:27:22 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-23072 It is nearly impossible to escape secondhand smoke, especially for children who are too little to voice their concern and walk away from it. I am all for smoke free communities, where nonsmokers can go to restaurants and enjoy their meals without breathing in smoke filled air. Also, research has shown that third hand smoke is just as harmful as secondhand smoke. Third hand smoke is what one smells on their hair and clothes after smoking or being around someone who recently smoked. It also clings to furniture and carpet and lingers for hours, but most people do not realize the negative consequences third hand smoke creates. I think we have come a long way in reducing the amount of secondhand smoke that affects million, but we can still do more by making all restaurants smoke free and encouraging parents to refrain from smoking when children are present. Good job Emily, keep up the good work, and best of luck!

]]> By: Johnny R. http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22715 Johnny R. Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:15:11 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22715 Second hand smoke comes from more than tobacco. Coal fired power plants and jet planes send tons of toxic smoke into the atmosphere and everyone on Earth is forced to breathe it. Ironically, on 9/11, 2001 when all U.S. air traffic was grounded, some people remarked how suddenly the air seemed more fresh and pleasant to breathe.

]]> By: Alan Gregory, Lt. Col., USAF, Ret. http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22636 Alan Gregory, Lt. Col., USAF, Ret. Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:48:49 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22636 It think about this all the time. Upon leaving active duty in the Air Force in the late 80s (so that my wife could pursue an academic career with Penn State University), I went to work for a small daily newspaper in northeastern Pa. One of the first hurdles I encountered was the tremendously bad (and high level) of secondhand cigarette an d cigar smoke I encountered in the night-shift newsroom. I complained at length over the course of many months, even taking my case to the publisher downstairs and threatening to quit for the sake of my health. Voila, one day a sign appeared on the newsroom wall declaring the room to be a no-smoking zone. But, the sign also said that this action was being taken “due to complaints,” not because of the public health crisis such smoking posed. What a travesty.

]]> By: Jackenson Durand http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22599 Jackenson Durand Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:32:33 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22599 Is it the world becoming stress and stressfully?
Years ago back from our native Country; a group of College friends analyzed nation’s behaviors in stress situation.
In the league CAlCIO we have been observing, gums amount accumulating by coaches.
We can use our Psycho-philosophy for being never discriminatory. Others would choose to go Taboo, others like myself choosing to “Going Green” as the nature’s beauty.
We have a young generation who only focus on their present enjoy life, they believe on what the Law offering them but so selfish they forget the nature’s future Law and environment. By starting to make nature conservancy, we can do children health conservancy.
We do not need to have a Doctorate in medicine to make children afraid of being ultra-smoker by making them to do little experimentation themselves, like in a class room we can ask students to take their own book, take a smoke and breathe on the book or paper, they would observe a very different color from green that would be their lungs’ color tomorrow.
Secondly
Thirdly

]]> By: Chris P. Bacon http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22588 Chris P. Bacon Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:17:25 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22588 Emily,
It’s good to hear that you grew up in an environment that was smoke free. That is a huge help to the healthy development of a child. Keep up the amazing work.

Chris Bacon

]]> By: Michael E. Bailey http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22580 Michael E. Bailey Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:29:55 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22580 A smoke free house is a very important thing for children and adults. I was born at a time when it was thought to be all right for a pregnant mom to smoke one or two cigarettes a day during pregnancy. There was such a time in the 1950s and thought ok to drink a glass of alcohol a day during pregnancy, too. My mother did smoking and drinking while pregnant. My father was a heavy drinker and a heavy chain smoker. He died of a heart attack at 47 and my mother dropped cigarette smoking altogether then and cut way back on drinking. So I had a smoke free house from the time I was 5 years old and have out lived my father so far by almost 7 years. After my father died, the only times I was exposed to second hand smoke at home was when my aunt and uncle came over once in a while for visits. My uncle was an especially haevy smoker and had a series of bad heart attacks. They didn’t come over too often. But you are a whole lot healthier if you don’t smoke and are not around people who do very much. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

]]> By: armansyahardanis http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22571 armansyahardanis Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:45:03 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22571 Hey Emily Bruckmann…, in my country, cigarettes are entertainment ! Almost smoker will be watch ” Football League ” Europe from local television. Not pay. Free ! Sponsored ? Company of cigarettes….

]]> By: Linda Karr http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/10/stopping-the-secondhand-smoke-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-22568 Linda Karr Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:52:33 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/blog/?p=1172#comment-22568 Another kind of secondhand smoke in the United States is from neighbors who use wood stoves to heat their homes and their hot water. New devices are being made to divert smoke away from the homes being heated (inefficiently), usually through outdoor wood boilers, but the smoke does go somewhere, to neighbors who usually would never dream this sort of pollution could be permitted in an urban area, but it often is. See http://woodgasification.spaces.live.com http://woodsmokenuisance.spaces.live.com and http://rawsep.spaces.live.com Residents against wood smoke emission particulates. One wood stove produces hundreds of times the particulates as a natural gas furnace. Particulates (Black Carbon) is the 2nd leading cause of global warming and stopping Black Carbon is the quickest way to slow climate change.

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