No amount of air filtration can eliminate the health hazards of secondhand smoke, according to a new U.S. surgeon general's report that could challenge a controversial loophole in Chicago's impending ban on smoking in public places.The report surveyed 20 years of scientific evidence about the effects of secondhand smoke and found that even trace amounts cause immediate and damaging effects in non-smokers. That led Surgeon General Richard Carmona to conclude there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."The debate is over as far as I'm concerned," said Carmona. "Based on the science I wouldn't allow anyone in my family to stand in a room with someone smoking."Some 126 million non-smokers in the U.S. are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces, putting them at a 20 percent to 30 percent greater risk for lung cancer and heart disease, according to the report. It attributed an estimated 50,000 deaths each year to secondhand smoke exposure, 430 of them babies who succumb to sudden infant death syndrome.
John Berkowitz of www.medequote.com says a smoking ban goes into effect in Evanston July 1st.
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