Peril of smoky pubs, 10 minutes like smoking several cigarettes

February 15, 2005 - IN THE NEWS - MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS

Spending just 10 minutes in a smoky Manchester pub has the same effect on your lungs as smoking several cigarettes, according to health campaigners.

Pat Karney, head of the Greater Manchester Tobacco-Free Project, took to the pubs of Manchester to test how inhaling other people's cigarette smoke can affect you.

He was astonished after tests revealed that standing in a pub where five to 10 people were smoking for just 10 minutes had the same effect on your lungs as smoking several cigarettes.

When an expert carried out a carbon monoxide test in a smoky pub on Deansgate on Rachel Zammit - a stop-smoking adviser who has never smoked - he found her lungs had the same level of carbon monoxide as a heavy smoker.

But in a pub that had banned smoking, the same test showed the level dropped to that of a non-smoker.

Coun Karney has now called for more pubs to ban smoking.

"We had very dramatic results between a Wetherspoons pub on Deansgate - a smoking pub - and Sinclair's Oyster Bar, which has banned smoking," he said.
"It took just a few minutes for the lungs to feel the effects of second-hand smoke.

"Passive smoking can increase the risk of a heart attack or lung cancer by up to 25 per cent. What chance do bar staff in Manchester have of protecting themselves? As more pubs go smoke-free, ones that don't risk staff taking legal action for exposure to second-hand smoke."

Manchester University senior lecturer in public health, Dr Richard Edwards, who conducted the test, said: "Just 10 minutes in a bar, which wasn't even very smoky, made the lungs of a non-smoker the same as a smoker. It is very worrying, considering long-term exposure to such levels can cause serious damage."

The news comes after the Manchester Evening News launched a hotline to help smokers quit, in conjunction with Greater Manchester NHS services. If you want to quit, call 0800 328 8534 from 9am to 5pm.