Cancerous Toxins Found in Urine of Employees of Smoking Permitted Establishments

According to HealthDay News, a recent U.S. study found that the urine of those who work in establishments where smoking is permitted have high levels of a cancer-causing toxin called NNK.

The study showed that even after a short exposure, the employees exposed to secondhand smoke had steady increases in the levels of the toxin. For these workers, there was a six percent increase of NNK in their bodies for every hour that they worked, according to Michael Stark, a leading investigator in the Multnomah County, Oregon health department.

The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Policy Research Program and was based on fifty-two nonsmokers that work in establishments that permit smoking such as various bars and restaurants. In order to prove that the people exposed to secondhand smoke were significantly affected by the exposure, the researchers compared the urine samples of the fifty-two employees to thirty-two employees of nonsmoking establishments.

The results of the comparison proved that three out of four people who worked in places where smoking was permitted had levels of NNK that were detectable. On the other hand, not even half of those who worked in nonsmoking places had detectable levels of the toxin.

This research supports the proposal that the level of concentration of this cancerous toxin in one's body directly coincides with the level of exposure to the toxin.

Ironically, this exposure that is causing these dangerous levels of NNK in employees is completely avoidable, just as Stark mentioned. All it requires is for the owners of these establishments to prohibit smoking inside. Yet, even with such evidence that this study and related studies have provided, there are plenty of employers that still have not done so.

According to Danny McGoldrick, the vice president for research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, twenty-two states have implemented a law that bans smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants. This is a very smart and honest attempt to reduce the amount of people exposed to secondhand smoke, and therefore NNK.

When this law was first implemented, many people, especially business owners, feared that banning smoking from their establishments would hurt their businesses drastically. This fear has been disproved because McGoldrick pointed out that research has shown that approximately eighty percent of people are nonsmokers and prefer smoke free environments. This outweighs the amount of people who would prefer to be able to smoke inside by a long run.

Another reason why many business owners are now banning smoking inside is that, now more than ever, employers are going to be held responsible for any health risks they put their employees at. They will be legally liable for their decision to continue to expose their employees to secondhand smoke, which could easily be prevented. This is even true for areas where workplace smoking is still permitted.

According to the Public Health Institute on Oakland, California, employees that have been harmed by secondhand smoking while at work are now turning to worker compensation, state, and federal disability laws for rectification.

Source:
Edelson, Ed. "Smokers Toxic to Bar, Restaurant Workers." HealthDay News. 28 June 2007.
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