RESEARCHERS HAVE warned that a greater number of people are exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke as a result of more car pooling by friends and work colleagues during the recession. The warning comes after a new study found nicotine levels in smokers’ cars were up to twice the levels found in bars and restaurants.
Doctors from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, studied 17 smokers and five non-smokers who commuted to and from work for 30 minutes or longer.
Two passive airborne nicotine samplers were placed in the cars – one at the front passenger seat headrest and one in the back seat behind the driver – for a 24-hour period. The researchers analysed the 44 samples gathered and found there was an almost twofold (1.96) increase in air nicotine concentrations per cigarette smoked.
According to the pilot study, published this morning in the medical journal, Tobacco Control, air nicotine concentrations in smokers’ motor vehicles were “strikingly higher” than non- detectable concentrations found in non-smokers’ cars. Nicotine levels increased with the number of cigarettes smoked.
The researchers estimated that nicotine concentrations were twice as strong in smokers’ cars as levels measured by other studies in public/private places, and 40-50 per cent higher than those in restaurants and bars that permit smoking. Concentrations were lower in larger vehicles. When car windows were opened, the use of ventilation made a difference to the results.
Previous research has shown that a car can be 23 times more toxic than a home environment in terms of passive smoke.
Earlier this year, Ash Ireland lobbied politicians seeking a ban on smoking in cars transporting children under the age of 16, citing an increased risk to their health from passive smoke. “Such a ban is in place in several Australian regions, in parts of Canada and the US, in Cyprus and is under consideration in the Netherlands, South Africa and elsewhere,” Dr Angie Brown, chairman of Ash Ireland, said.
The Irish Times understands Ash will shortly be meeting Áine Brady, Minister for State at the Department of Health, to discuss a ban here. It is estimated that about 7,000 people die from the effects of tobacco smoke each year in the Republic.
All participants in this latest study – smokers and non-smokers – agreed that smoking in the car posed a health risk to passengers. Of the smokers, 53 per cent said that being unable to smoke in the car would help them to quit altogether and 93 per cent agreed that motor vehicles should be smoke-free on a voluntary basis.
But only 7 per cent of smokers said vehicles should be smoke-free by regulation.
“The high air nicotine concentrations measured in motor vehicles in this study support the urgent need for smoke-free education campaigns and legislative measures banning smoking in motor vehicles when passengers, especially children, are present,” the researchers concluded.