Increased ventilation will do little to clear harmful tobacco smoke from pubs and restaurants, according to a major new EU-funded research report.
The findings, due to be published today, form only part of a troubling study that warns of severe health effects caused by polluted indoor air in our homes, schools and workplaces. The study was carried out by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), one of the EU's most important scientific institutions.
The surprise finding that fans and extractors do little to clear chemicals released by cigarettes turns on its head both conventional wisdom and the notion this might provide a way out for pub owners seeking to block the Government's smoking ban.
One of the leading researchers on the study said the findings led to only one conclusion: "Ban smoking in public places, in pubs and bars."
Improving ventilation in pubs and restaurants was a key plank of compromise proposals put forward last month by vintners, who claim the ban on workplace smoking set to come into force on January 1st next will damage their livelihoods. The health impact of passive smoking is only one element of a much wider Commission-funded study of indoor air pollution.
Its bleak findings indicate that indoor air can be at least twice as polluted as outdoor air, with dangerous chemicals coming from carpets, furnishings, paint and computers. The result, says the report to be issued by the JRC in Ispra, Italy, is an unknown number of excess deaths from cancer, lung and heart disease and increases in chronic conditions such as asthma and allergies.
People spend 85 to 90 per cent of their time indoors, at home, in the office or school, in pubs, restaurants and cinemas, said Dr Dimitrius Kotzias, director of the JRC group who produced the ground-breaking research. "We found that the air in the indoor environment is more polluted than the air outdoors," he said. The research focus has traditionally been on outside pollution released by industry and transport, but this has produced an information deficit about the risks indoors.
"We know a lot about outdoor air. Unfortunately we don't know much about indoor air," he told The Irish Times. Levels of a known carcinogen, benzene, which can trigger leukaemia, were at least twice as high indoors than outdoors in sampling done across Europe, he said. Other volatile chemicals come off carpets, cleaning agents, plastics, modern building materials, computers and office equipment, he said.
"Putting carpets in a closed environment will emit substances in high concentrations and in the long term have an influence on human health," Dr Kotzias stated. "Computers are emitting chemicals from plastics or materials that release substances about which we know nothing."
While a startling range of products can have health effects, such as the artificial lemon scent put into many cleaning products, tobacco smoke remains a key source, he said. "Environmental tobacco smoke plays a very important role in pollution in indoor air." For this reason, the JRC team conducted measurements on whether artificial ventilation could reduce levels of smoke-related cancer-causing agents. Dr Kotzias's team found even high levels of ventilation failed to clear away harmful compounds left by smoking.
"Preliminary evidence shows that changes in the ventilation rates do not have a significant influence on compound concentrations," he said. "If we increase ventilation rates this would hardly lead to a measurable improvement. High exchange rates are not high enough to reduce the pollution levels in tobacco smoke."
Cleaning products, furnishings make home an unhealthy place: page 5