My Board of Health Smoking Ordinance Public Hearing Statement
I will be addressing the issue of federal regulations regarding worker safety.
The Dept. of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is the
primary federal agency responsible for worker safety.
From OSHA's mission statement:
"OSHA's mission is to assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting
and enforcing standards;"
OSHA in 29CFR (Code of Federal Regulations), Part 1910 - Occupational Safety
and Health Standards, Subpart Z - Toxic and Hazardous Substances, Standard 1000 -
Air contaminants; regulates exposure by employees to hazardous substances in the air.
I am familiar with OSHA standards for air contaminants. At one time I was
responsible for worker safety in an industrial environment and was trained
in Industrial Hygiene.
OSHA sets standards for the Permissible Exposure Levels to chemical contaminants
in air.
OSHA has never set standards for Second Hand Smoke. In a landmark near-court case,
the Action on Smoking and Health group sued OSHA to ban all smoking in workplaces.
When they learned the best OSHA could do would be to set permissible levels, they
dropped the case as this would have been harmful to anti-smoking efforts.
OSHA has, however, established PELs (Permissible Exposure Levels) for all the
measurable chemicals, including the 40 carcinogens, in secondhand smoke.
The bottom line -- you would have to be exposed to an extreme level of secondhand
smoke to surpass these PELs, and without the benefit of doors or air-exchange systems.
This chart is adapted from the Littlewood & Fennel "Toxic Toxicology" study,
a study commissioned by the government.
Permissible Exposure Levels are often expressed as a Threshold Limit Value.
A Threshold Limit Value (TLV) is the concentration of an airborne substance to
which an average person can be repeatedly exposed without adverse effects. TLV's
are usually expressed as a Time weighted average (TLV-TWA), based on an allowable
exposure averaged over a normal 8-hour workday or 40-hour work-week.
This chart shows how many cigarettes would be needed to exceed Threshold Limit
Values for those chemcials which are measurable in Environmental Tobacco Smoke.
The figures for ETS yields per cigarette come directly from the EPA. Then the
number of cigarettes that would be required to reach the lowest published
threshold for each of these substances was calculated.
- 222,000 cigarettes to surpass Benzopyrene
- 118,000 for Acetone
- 50,000 packs to surpass Toluene
- 14,000 cigarettes for Acetaldehyde or Hydrazine
- 1250 for Hydroquinone (the low end of the scale)
For a room the size of the City Council Chambers it would require over 8000
people smoking four cigarettes per hour to reach the most restrictive
permissible level. Without any ventilation.
Many of the chemicals in second hand smoke are common byproducts of combustion
which can be found in car exhaust and are produced by fireplaces and burning candles.
Those who advocate for a strict anti-choice smoking ordinance claim they are doing
it for the employees. But does the risk rise to the level of requiring government
regulation?
OSHA doesn't think so.
Littlewood & Fennel in their study concluded that
"Inadequate ventilation, not ETS, is the danger" and
"It is entirely possible that buildings ventilated to a level to comfortably
accomodate smokers would promote higher indoor air quality overall."
