Clearing The Air

A secondhand smoke air quality study by the California EPA....

....specifically by the California Air Resources Board of the California EPA.

Regular readers know that I frequently point out the City of St. Louis Park, MN. Environmental Health Department air quality test results, which measured for secondhand smoke concentrations indoors at bars & restaurants in 2004. The SLP air quality test results, measuring for nicotine*; the trace component of secondhand smoke, obtained the following results:

1 - 33 micrograms per cubic meter, median result 3.3 micrograms / cu. M

OSHA safe level is 500 micrograms per cubic meter (.5 mg /cu. M)

So the SLP results show secondhand smoke concentrations indoors to be 500 -15 times safer than OSHA requires, median level is 152 times safer than OSHA regulations.

The California EPA Air Resources Board conducted air quality testing which measured for secondhand smoke concentrations outdoors, again measuring for nicotine*; the trace component of secondhand smoke, and obtained the following results:

.01 -5 micrograms per cubic meter. (found at bottom of page 3 here)

OSHA safe level is 500 micrograms per cubic meter (.5 mg /cu. M)

So the California EPA results show secondhand smoke concentrations outdoors to be 50,000 -100 times safer than OSHA requires.

The reason this study recently made headlines is that UCLA contacted the California Air Resources Board of the California EPA to say "....see this is why you need to ban smoking outdoors as well........" However at 50,000 - 100 times safer than OSHA guidelines, nobody is harmed.....except of course Johnson & Johnson Company and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) both with serious financial interests in Nicoderm and other pharmaceutical nicotine products.

Further to note, the University of California school system has received so many financial grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more here, and here, etc. etc. I haven't been able to calculate it all........hmmmm, I wonder what their motive might be?

* Nicotine is the only unique or "trace" chemical in secondhand smoke. If you measured for formaldehyde, the carpet and other interior sources of formaldehyde would corrupt the test result, fomaldehyde is formed naturally in our atmosphere due to photochemical oxidation. Benzene is given off from burning foods in the kitchen or diesel exhaust outdoors so again a false reading would be obtained. Therefore, nicotine is the ideal chemical to measure for to obtain secondhand smoke concentrations. And then our comparison to OSHA guidelines is the logical manner in which to determine if secondhand smoke levels pose a health hazard.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 10:10 AM