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Focus
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| Unfriendly Fumes Rebecca Clay Abstract
In the early days of cigarette smoke awareness, most attention was focused on the health effects of smoking on the smoker. Today, at least some of the focus has shifted to how the active smoker's fumes affect the nonsmoker's health. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) , comprising smoke that the smoker exhales and smoke that curls up from the ends of a burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe between puffs, is made up of the same toxic constituents as mainstream smoke. But ETS contains more unburned hydrocarbons and is a more potent mutagen on a weight basis. About 50 million adult Americans now smoke, and their spouses, children, and coworkers are likely to be exposed to ETS. A growing number of studies say secondhand smoke not only causes disease but also kills. One of the most controversial and comprehensive studies, a 1993 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claims that ETS is responsible for at least 3,000 U.S. lung cancer deaths each year. But not everyone agrees with these findings: the tobacco industry responded by condemning the report and suing the agency.
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