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1st
appeared 10 December 1998
Bartenders Breathe Easier After Smoking Ban
Bartenders who worked for as little as one month in smoke-free conditions after California
law banned smoking in their workplace reported a significant drop in coughing and other
respiratory problems and showed improved lung function, according to a new study by
researchers at UCSF.
The study, appearing in the December 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA), is the first to examine the short-term health effects of reducing
second-hand smoke. It was designed to study the health impact of California State Assembly
Bill 13, which prohibited smoking in most bars and taverns in the state as of January 1,
1998.
The rationale for the new law was to protect the health of California workers by reducing
their exposure to second-hand smoke. "We saw the chance to examine how the smoking
ban would affect respiratory symptoms and lung function among an occupation usually
exposed to many hours of second-hand smoke every week," said Mark D. Eisner, a
pulmonary and critical care medicine post-doctoral fellow in UCSF's Cardiovascular
Research Institute and lead author on the JAMA paper.
About three-fourths of the 53 bartenders in the UCSF study reported respiratory symptoms
such as wheezing, coughing and phlegm production during the month before the smoke-free
workplace law went into effect. One to two months later, 59 percent of those who had
indicated respiratory symptoms were now symptom-free. In addition, more than three-fourths
of the bartenders initially reported sensory irritation such as red, teary eyes, runny
nose, and sore or scratchy throats during the month before the smoking ban. During the
follow-up study, more than three-fourths of this group were symptom-free.
Finally, researchers measured the lung function of the bartenders before and after
implementation of the smoke-free workplace law. By two different measures used, lung
function improved after the ban.
"The bartenders experienced a significant improvement in lung function simply from
avoiding second-hand smoke in the workplace," Eisner said. "That's a pretty big
change over a short period of time."
Surprisingly, even among bartenders who smoked cigarettes themselves, reduced exposure to
second-hand smoke led to improved respiratory symptoms and function.
"The study clearly shows that reducing second-hand smoke exposure quickly leads to
improved symptoms and lung function," Eisner said. "This is one of the first
studies to look at such a heavily exposed occupational group," he added, noting,
"It may be hard to generalize the study to people with lower exposures."
Links:
Journal of the
American Medical Association
Cardiovascular Research Institute
Source: Wallace Ravven, News
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