Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
years that cigarettes are a health hazard and cause lung cancer. Such
was the power of the tobacco industry among national legislators. But
its economic clout has been sinking. North Carolina is the nation's
largest producer of tobacco, but the number of tobacco farms there
decreased by nearly 80 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to
the Department of Agriculture.
In 2009 the government passed legislation to restrict cigarette adver-
tising further and placed control over production and marketing with
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is responsible for
approving the marketing and distribution of both food and drugs. Ciga-
rettes are certainly not food, but because tobacco smoke is inhaled for
its pharmacological effects, cigarettes are clearly drugs. Drugs require
safety tests before they can be approved for sale. A product that kills a
third of those who use it cannot pass such tests and must be banned.
Federal courts are stepping in where congressional leaders fear to
tread. In May 2009, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals
unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that declared the tobacco
industry guilty of civil racketeering. The court affi rmed that tobacco
companies have been and continue to engage in a massive decades-long
campaign to defraud the American public about the dangers of smoking.
The lower court judge ruled that the federal government had failed to
protect the public interest by bowing to political pressure. The decision
was upheld on appeal. On February 19, 2010, the companies asked the
Supreme Court to review the decision. As of mid-2010 the court had not
ruled.
Second-Hand Smoke
Prior to the past two decades, it was believed that smokers were harming
only themselves, but evidence since then has revealed that those who
live or work with smokers are in danger as well. For everyone who
is not a smoker but lives with one, the second-hand cigarette smoke
they inhale daily is only slightly less dangerous than directly inhaling
the gas from burning tobacco as the smoker does. According to the
surgeon general, partners of smokers are at a 25 to 30 percent greater
risk of coronary heart disease and 20 to 30 percent more likely to get
lung cancer than partners of nonsmokers.
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Second-hand smoke is also
implicated in cervical cancer and hearing loss.
Recent research has noted the phenomenon of third-hand smoke,
the invisible yet toxic gases and particles clinging to hair, skin, cloth-
ing and furnishings after smoking has ceased. The presence of these
