Anti-Smoking Groups Pushing California Cities For Regulations After Report Linking Secondhand Smoke To Breast Cancer

Some San Diego County cities are considering further smoking regulations after the release of a report produced by the California Environmental Protection Agency and adopted last week by the state Air Resources Board that links secondhand smoke to breast cancer and reproductive health problems, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Lee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/1). The report, which was conducted by the CalEPA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, looked at more than 1,000 studies on the effects of secondhand smoke and finds that young women exposed to the smoke increased their risk for breast cancer by 68% to 120%. The report also finds that secondhand smoke can cause preterm deliveries and infants to be born with low birthweights. The Air Resources Board voted 6-0 to classify secondhand tobacco smoke as a "toxic air contaminant" after the report was released. ARB now has three years to consider whether possible regulations against secondhand smoke should be enforced in the state (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/27). Several anti-smoking groups in San Diego County are using the findings to push for new restrictions on smoking at trolley stops and on beaches and restaurant patios, as well as restrictions on drivers and condo and apartment residents, the Union-Tribune reports. According to an analysis of San Diego County released on Tuesday by the Tobacco Free Communities Coalition of San Diego and the American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties, about one-third of cities in the county have imposed further restrictions that prohibit smoking in workplaces and within 20 feet of entrances to government buildings (San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/2). However, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute and CDC have declined to endorse the CalEPA report, USA Today reports. Michael Thun, ACS' vice president of epidemiology, said that although a link between secondhand smoke and breast cancer is "certainly possible ... at this point, there is not broad scientific consensus." Jonathan Samet, a senior scientific editor of a U.S. surgeon general report on secondhand smoke, which is expected to be released later this year, said, "The scientific community is still watching for the evidence to evolve" (Ritter, USA Today, 2/2).


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