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A Resolution of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, urging the General Assembly and Governor to enact a statewide ban on smoking in public places with all deliberate speed.
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WHEREAS, tobacco smoke, whether inhaled through smoking or indirectly through exposure to smoky environments contains more than 4,000 known chemical compounds that are released into the air as particles and gases; and
WHEREAS, according to a 2001 report issued by the National Cancer Institute, there are sixty-nine known or probable carcinogens in tobacco smoke; and
WHEREAS, in 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published results of an environmental tobacco smoke study, whose rates applied to Allegheny County population data for 2005 suggest that each year 227 non-smoking residents die from lung cancer as a result of environmental tobacco smoke exposure; and
WHEREAS, for children, the 1999 EPA report concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is causally associated with increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia; increased prevalence of fluid in the middle ear; and increased symptoms of upper respiratory tract irritation, is responsible for increases the number of episodes and the severity of symptoms in asthmatic children, and causes thousands of non-asthmatic children to develop this condition each year; and
WHEREAS, based on 2005 census data and EPA estimates, approximately 2,500 Allegheny County children experience exacerbation of their asthma, and 945 toddlers under 18 months of age suffer lower respiratory tract infections due to environmental tobacco smoke; and
WHEREAS, a 2004 study appearing in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that levels of cancer-causing particulates were up to 50 times higher in a smoky bar than on a busy highway, and there is also credible evidence that non-smoking bar and restaurant workers' blood cotinine levels are si...
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