Lecture 10: A public health approach to environmental tobacco smoke

how to approach a health problem

1. what is the problem → use surveillance

2. what is the cause → find the risk factor

3. what works → find an intervention

4. how do you do it → implementation

what is the major source of ETS exposure?

home:

• children in these homes have higher levels of cotinine (biomarker of secondhand smoke exposure)

• 1/3 children todat are being exposed today

health effects of secondhand smoke on children

• acute respiratory infection, ear infection, severe asthma, slow lung growth, increase risk of sudden infant death syndrome

increase risks for non-smokers exposed to ETS

25-30% increase in heart disease risk

20-30% increase in lung cancer risk

economic costs for non-smokers from second hand smoke

nearly $6 billion- indirect from loss wages and disability

why was ETS called a fraud for a long time

A judge(Judge Osteen) threw out the EPAs decision (in bold) about smoking and lung cancer

• appealed but the damage was done

• Once the decision was made, the misinformation stayed

• For years people call ETS fraud

why was science also lying?

Tobacco industry did not want to lose money

what is not an effective solution to ETS

ventilation cannot reduce health risks

how can we reduce the gap between science and practice?

law and policy- used if education fails

• “police powers” are public health laws that are allowed to compromise individual rights to benefit the collective goods

history of smoking policies in Madison

• april 1991: UW madison becomes smoke free (inside, later outside)

• 1992: City adopts plane to phase in restaurant smoking ban

• 2004: indoor bar smoking was banned

• 2010: state wide ban on indoor smoking ban including bars and resturants