IOM scientists present their results at a major international conference on second-hand cigarette smoke
IOM scientists are taking part in an international conference held in Edinburgh examining experience from Scotland and other countries following introduction of smoke-free legislation (www.smokefreeconference07.com). Over the last 18-months we have been actively involved in helping to assess the impact of the changes in legislation in Scotland , Northern Ireland and are now carrying an assessment in England .
The results of our work with the University of Aberdeen are published in the scientific journal Annals of Occupational Hygiene, where we present data from a 1-year study of over 370 bar workers from across Scotland . The NHS Health Scotland funded project, Bar workers’ Health and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure (BHETSE) was carried out by University of Aberdeen , Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine (DEOM) in conjunction with the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow and IOM.
The BHETSE Project has examined changes in bar workers' exposure to second-hand smoke. Using a marker of nicotine in saliva the study was able to show that non-smoking bar workers’ exposure to tobacco smoke reduced by an average of 89% over a 12-month period spanning the introduction of the smoking restrictions on the 26th March 2006. Interestingly, the study also showed statistically significant reductions in the nicotine intake of bar workers who smoked suggesting that in addition to reductions in second-hand smoke exposure, these smokers were also smoking fewer cigarettes.
Dr Sean Semple , a Lecturer at the DEOM and Honorary Senior Scientist at IOM, said: "This large study was carried out in Aberdeen , Edinburgh and Glasgow and shows that smoke-free legislation has almost completely removed occupational exposure to second-hand smoke among workers in the hospitality sector. Before the legislation non-smoking bar workers were breathing in very high levels of second-hand smoke during their work-shift. Non-smoking bar workers had nicotine intakes approximately seven times higher than non-smokers in the general population with some analyses suggesting that this was equivalent to smoking about 160 cigarettes per year. Our study shows that this has been successfully reduced to a level comparable to most Scottish non-smokers. The study also shows very high compliance with the legislation in almost all the bars that took part in our research. Bar workers reported that compliance increased from immediately post-ban through to the end of the study in early 2007 and this was supported by the falling levels of a nicotine metabolite in their saliva."
The study also measured the exposure to second-hand smoke of a number of bar workers in Aberdeen over a full working shift before and after the legislation. These data also show a dramatic reduction. Before March 2006 bar workers were exposed to fine particulate matter concentrations that were, on average, three times higher than those deemed to be ‘unhealthy’ if measured in outdoor air. After introduction of the legislation measurements of the same bar worker at the same time and day of the week showed exposure reductions of 86% and average fine particle concentrations very similar to those found in the air outdoors.
IOM also publishes results from the first phase of an evaluation being carried out in Northern Ireland. This work shows that levels of nicotine in the homes of non-smokers living with smokers were between about 10 and 20 μg/m 3, which are comparable to other measurements we have made in homes and are lower than that found in public spaces where smoking is still permitted.
A follow-up study will be carried out in 2008 to determine the impact of the smoke-free legislation in Northern Ireland on smoking levels at the homes of non-smokers living with smokers.
Copies of two posters presented at the conference can be downloaded from the links below:
The paper that we have published is…
Bar Workers' Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke: The Effect of Scottish Smoke-Free Legislation on Occupational Exposure. Semple S, MacCalman L, Naji A, Dempsey S, Hilton S, Miller B, Ayres J.
It can be viewed on the Advance Access site of the Annals of Occupational Hygiene at http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/papbyrecent.dtl
doi:10.1093/annhyg/mem044