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Subscribe to RSSPeople who live in apartment buildings, especially those with children, breathe in tobacco smoke even if no one in their own household smokes, a new study shows.
Researchers found that about one third of study participants living in apartment buildings, condominiums and other multi-unit housing reported smelling smoke in their buildings, and about half of those residents reported smelling smoke in their own units. People were only eligible to participate in the study if no members of their household smoked in the home.
The findings also showed that 41 percent of people with children reported smelling smoke in their building, whereas 26 percent of people with no children said the same.
That may be because people with children, on average, are poorer than people without children, so they tend to live in buildings with larger numbers of other people who are smoking, said study researcher Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, an associate professor in pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston. There is a general association between being poorer and smoking, he said.
But taken together with another recent study, the findings mean that half of parents whose children are exposed to tobacco smoke don't know it, Winickoff said. In that earlier study, Winickoff and his colleagues found that nine out of 10 children living in apartments had a chemical called cotinine in their blood. Cotinine is an indicator that a person has breathed in tobacco smoke.
"We know that if you smell it, you child will have evidence of tobacco smoke exposure in their blood. But just because you don't smell it, doesn't mean you're not exposed," Winickoff said.
Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke has been linked with higher rates of asthma, pneumonia and ear infections in children, even when researchers take into account other factors linked to these conditions, such as poverty and race, he said.
Some policy makers are making efforts that could improve the health of children living in apartment buildings, Winickoff said. Public housing authorities in Maine and in Boston, for example, will soon implement mandates that buildings become smoke-free, and in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is advocating for disclosure rules, which would require all multi-unit buildings to clearly state whether smoking is permitted in the building.
"People will have a choice to live in a building that has clean air, and I think we want people to have choices," Winickoff said.
The next step in his research, Winickoff said, is to look at how best to raise awareness among people living in multi-unit housing of the impact of allowing smoking in buildings.
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Smoking cigarettes has no health benefits, and a long list of ailments that it causes. It is the only product I can think of where using it as directed will most likely contribute to your death. Why is it still legal?
Oh wait, big tobacco lobby.
Good point. It's like asking why a certain all natural plant with tons of industrial/medical benefits and that's basically a better/safer alternative to alcohol is still illegal.
Oh wait, big prison/alcohol/law enforcement lobbies.
Indeed, should be reversed.
Could also be that local, state and federal tax revenues from tobacco sales are too lucrative for politicians to give up. Every pack of cigarettes is worth 98 cents to the state of Illinois, $1.01 per pack to the U.S. federal government, the city of Chicago gets 68 cents and Cook County nets $2 in taxes per pack.
Its really difficult to give up that income stream even when you know that people are diseased and dying from tobacco products. State of Illinois alone is pulling in over $1 BILLION annually!
Tobacco takes some blame for the cancers caused by air pollution. Some people never smoke but get cancer from all the chemicals mixed in the air. The States steal the tobacco tax money instead of using it for anti-smoking campaigns or medical treatment of smokers.
I think it's called personal freedoms in America....amongst those my father fought for in WWII and his father fought for in WWI.
Historically, just about every 'government' that ever was has collected tax revenue on tobacco. They are well aware of its addictive properties and the consequences to overall health. When you factor in any and all of the pros and cons - only one item remains: M-O-N-E-Y
Ironically, it is the same factor (M-O-N-E-Y) that puts all kinds of chemicals in just about everything we eat, drink, and breathe.
FWIW - I am a smoker. 30+ years now. Believe me, my lungs know it. And I hate it. I've tried to quit no less than 30 times. And am still trying. But the part that really pisses me off is the completely disproportionate 'public health blame' that gets tied to the "character" of smokers by the public - while the very same who toss the stones tool down the freeway in their 9mpg SUV. And how about all those companies out there that create any type of toxic waste that is release into the air, water, and/or ground??? You breathe THAT air. You drink and bathe in THAT water. And ALL of your food grows from THAT ground. Think about that the next time you dump a little chlorox in your laundry, or you plug in a room fragrance product, or you discard anything plastic. Where do you think it all goes???
Yes, smoking is a public health issue. Tobacco needs to be eradicated. Yet, where are those massive campaigns - complete with insurance industry coverage - against all the others???
Allowing a choice of buildings, with or without smokers, is a good plan. Banning it outright isn't going to work. Provide the manpower for free (using the cigarette tax money) and move the people around so they can breathe clean air. Then enforce the smoking ban in buildings that are supposed to be smoke free. Tobacco plants have a new future in the genetically modified substance production arena, so farmers will no longer need tobacco consumption to stay in business. At the point where it becomes sustainable for the farmers, the government should ban the sale of tobacco products. This coming from a smoker of 48 years.
It's sort of related to highly aromatic cooking. Odors (aromas depending on your point of view) from garlic, ethnic spice dishes, etc., can travel many units and stories in a residential building.
Except aromas won't likely cause cancer...
Ruken, I think it has something to do with the fact that a large portion of the funding that supported the American Revolution came from tobacco.
American was built on tobacco and cotton. Don't forget slavery enabled lazy gentlemen farmers to grown and hand harvest both crops. Now we allow illegals from South of the American border to harvest our lettuce, so forth.
Unfortunately this is part of community living buildings. You do have to put up with many elements whether you like it or not. As STG states, cooking smells can be really bad. If you are sensitive to cleaners or detergents, you will have issues. If you can't take your family out of that living situation, you are stuck with any consequences.
Wow, its nice to know that even if we avoid their products and never smoke or chew, Big Tobacco can still kill us, unless we are wealthy enough to buy a single family home.
If this is a problem for your family, just call your president, I'm sure he will buy you a home :)
Oh that's hysterical......its nice to know I share a country with such intelligent open minded people. I guess Obama's bizare extravagances are why there's no longer any homelessness huh? Wow...
A co-worker complained about this smoking in her apartment all the time along with the parking. She got a house after saving and after 6 monhs of living there they found Radon levels 100 times allowable.
George Carlin said it best, it is always the smokers who find the dead jogger bodies in Central Park.....
Well fast food with its high fat and salts levels can't kill everyone. Fast to the grave food needs a little help from its' friend, Mr. cigarette.
The renter below me smokes outside on his patio and I can smell it coming in through my closed balcony doors. Smoking killed my grandmother and I very much dislike any smoke exposure but I still have another 16 months on my lease.
That's the issue too because how do we tell people in a free country that they can't smoke outside? And yet, it still gets in. *Sigh*
They have to smoke outside - management already won't let them smoke inside. I don't hold any ill will towards smokers, I just don't want to be included in the activity without my consent.
Man, I hope nobody farts in your building....you'll REALLY have some issues then, won't you??? Geez, get over yourself already! The world doesn't turn just for you! (whiner).....
Except farts don't inflame sinuses, or aggravate allergies. Fact, smoking is bad to one's health. Fact, second hand smoke is dangerous. Fact, non-smokers really shouldn't be forced to put up with health threatening environmental hazards from inconsiderate neighbors who are too weak to quit their habits, and too selfish to consider what they may be putting others through.
Maybe you should quite whining about common sense? Just a thought.
I get people asking a smoker(like myself) to not smoke near them, any smoker who complains is kind of a dick, but if they are smoking on their patio, and it is coming into your closed house, get better windows and doors. To all the experts out here about second hand smoke, how far does it have to travel in air before it becomes so diluted that it will do nothing???? Just because you can smell smoke doesn't mean you're getting cancer., and rconstant- common sense??? I'll tell you what, I'll put out my little cigarette around you, but god forbid you have to walk around a smoke stack in an industrial area. worse things than smoke out there
Smokers should have to smoke in special apartments/condos that are equipped to scrub the air before it is allowed back outside. If you want to smoke and kill yourself, fine, but you shouldn't be allowed to kill me or my family, too. Cooking & laundry smells won't kill me or my family. Yes, if there were no smoking buildings and/or complexes I would move there.
Those laundry smells are bleach and bleach will do wonders to your health.
I'm betting that if there were no smoking buildings and/or complexes that you moved to, you'd find something to bitch about there too. Get over yourself.
When you live in the equivalent of a tarpaper shack, you smell everything in the area. Quit living like a dog in a kennel. I especially like his smelling the smoke from a single outside smoker through his closed doors. That happens when you live in a barn.
Smoking killed my father and raped my mother.
Chris...lets get a rope!
@ Chris-629698-How does smoke rape someone? tard.
I got this one Chris 629698 , I believe it rapes your lungs......
We have dog parks for people to run their dogs off leashes...I seriously think we should have 'smoking' parks for people to smoke. I live in a community for people over 55. We have single family homes, and small backyards. When my neighbors smoke in their yards, it seeps through the walls into my home. This causes migraines and other physical problems for me. I like fresh air, and love to have my windows open, rather than using the A/C, but the smoke is too bad. "Smoking" parks would solve the problem.
I think we should have "miserable old biddy parks" where you can go and complain. Oh wait, we do, it's called MSNBC.com
Your neighbors smoke outside, yet it gets "through your walls"?
There's no pleasing some people.
Make sure they put barbed wire around the parks and a nice scroll-work sign above the gate that says "Arbeit Macht Frei"
LMAO Craneguy !
Try a cruise ship. Same thing.
If the smoke from your cigarette leaks into an adjoining apartment or condominium, the management should have the authority to make you stop. You can sit outdoors in the ice and snow like all your buddies at the office.
Why not have no smoking apartments or condominiums? Can homeowners associations require people to be none smokers to live there? But there would have to be an exception for medical cannabis!
Wow, everyone should live their life to suit you?? Somehow, I don't think so.
No, but you should live your life in a way that doesn't cause health risks to others. Smoking is an environmental hazard for a community. So yes apartment complexes do have every right to regulate renters who are too stupid to stop.
Rconstant- Health risk to others? you driving is a health risk to me, so you probably shouldn't be doing that. Seriously people, tobacco smoking has been around long before this country was, so in all fairness it was there first
What a bunch of pussies.
This problem plagued me for two years and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. A chain smoker moved into the condo under me and it permeated my unit. I didn't even think to ask about the smoking rules before buying since I didn't think that air could travel between the condo units. Turns out that there were no rules banning smoking and the ventilation system was improperly designed so that all the air returns were connected through the building. Of course, trying to be diplomatic with the guy caused him to smoke even more. My husband and I were never so miserable, and could not sell because we were upside down on the mortgage due to the housing crisis. I actually contemplated suicide because I felt so helpless and had no safe haven to retreat to that was smoke-free. Finally, the guy moved out. Shortly after, our efforts to get our mortgage company to allow us to do a short sale were successful. We are now renting a house and have a 7 month old baby. I will NEVER live in an apartment or condo again!
FDA still allows the sale cigarettes - it must be safe for public use!
You DO realize of course that we all inhale MUCH MUCH worse air just stepping outside or God Forbid if you drive anywhere. Please, I do NOT smoke and do not support it BUT I dont hear anyone calling for all cars, truck, buses, power plants, etc to be closed down. As far as offensive odors? I would rather smell a cigarette than perfume any day of the week.
When you all grow up you can test panties for response to torque! Those of you whom couldn't commit suicide, the community wishes you better luck next time! Try checking out the gas laws you brainless, spinless twits! Educated from television and whining.
So they let you out after 5pm as well? I thought lock down was at 6pm.
Hmm you mean there are actually selfish people who dont care that their awful habits inflict permanent damage on others!?
I have to agree more with URBAN COWBOY then most of these "anti" posts. I have the feeling this is sort of the old focus trick, as in look real, real close at what we tell you to look at while we do what we what outside your focus.
Do you live near a street? do you smell car exhaust or diesel exhaust or notice the road dust? NO? but if you see a smoker, you can smell it 50yds away even if you're up-wind, through a closed window, even if normally you can't smell your upper lip, maybe. hmmm. Do you live in a farm area? Does the mold and fungus spores or bacteria kicked up by the plow get to you? How about the chemical fertilizer or insecticides or herbacides? IS there a lawn or flowerbed close by? They use some of the same stuff. You don't have and use a barbecue, do you? There's a lot of things that don't help COPD of any sort, wouldn't want to go into what factories and older coal plants dump in the air.
Now, don't get upset, I'm not saying smoking is good for you, I just wonder why the article felt it had to mention that most smokers are poor, and how he's going to do a follow-up study, and don't forget to mention THE CHILDERN, a good turning point every time. hmmmm looking for a few bucks there buddy? Looking to lay the blame on a minority, like poor people and smokers, (most people don't smoke), so people don't broaden their focus, maybe? Don't worry about any of that other stuff, it's just them evil smokers that are to blame for ALL breathing problems. We live in a industrial country, big on chemistry, much of which is not good for us.
My point is, (and politicians do it all the time, it seems to be the way things are done now days,) find someone to blame, and sic everybody on them over here to distract from the real problem over there. And people love simple answers for complex problems and love someone to blame even more. I'm just wondering if we're getting conned AGIAN.
What's next? Of course they will ban smoking in your own home, or your car. Just make it illegal already! sitting on the fence saying how bad it is for everybody, and benefiting from the revenue it produces is not right.
If not for cigarettes, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would have gone insolvent years ago. That's besides the massive taxes smokers pay.
Here's an idea.....all those who whine about cigarette smoke should move anywhere West of the Mississippi river, like maybe into the "wild West" of Utah or Nevada......you can drive for a hundred miles and not bump into another human being! That way you can live with your own stink and not have to put up with others'! Everywhere I've gone East of "the river", people are living on top of one another like sardines in a can....who could stand that to begin with?? I can't wait until I can sell out and move West, away from what is commonly known as "civilization" (?) , and I live in a rural area already...just not rural enough!!
Aw gees, Diane. Don't send 'em all out here!!! I moved out to the sticks to get as far away from the freeways and the city as I could.
And you know some damned developer will bunch 'em all up on tiny little 50ft lots...(there's MONEY to be made!)..and then it starts all over with 7-11's, and then WalMart, and then wider roads.....and on and on again.
This is just the tip of the iceberg! Driving fossil fueled vehicles, using internal combustion engines, and exhaust emissions, causes more cancers, medical diseases, aliments, & deaths, than smoking cigarettes does! And, don't even get me started on politicians ordering us peons into wars, to further agendas! One thing is a given, AFTER BEING BORNE, WE ALL DIE! In reality, we all start dying when we are borne! Put that in between your lips, and smoke it! [:-(]