HOUSE OF LABOUR: Bahamian consumers have finally decided to fight back over inhaling 'passive smoke' before their life is exhaled from the ill effect of this health risk.

Given the rate of cancer deaths in our country, it is high time the consumer movement enhances the social dialogue about smoke and cigarette smoking in the work place. In 1998 the total number of individuals admitted to the Princess Margaret Hospital for cancer stood at 330. This may appear as a small amount, but we have a small population. Although, not all of these were related to lung cancer the most commonly associated with smoking there were 25 cases of lung cancer admitted to the PMH in the same year.

However, not only cigarette smoking can lead to cancer, but also non-smokers inhaling the smoke exhaled by an addict of tobacco. In fact, the tobacco industry is the only industry that kills one third of its clients. In an article by Samuel Gremial he argues that it is beyond doubt that, from a medical point of view, smoke addiction is a social scourge. But what can be done to ensure the peaceful coexistence of smokers and non-smokers at the workplace, where many people spend at least half of their waking time?

It is known that passive smoking is almost as bad for one health as active smoking, and therefore tensions are likely to break out between smokers and their health conscious colleagues. A radical solution would be simply to prohibit smoking everywhere on the company's premises, but this has some serious drawbacks. In addition to the negative impact on the quality of interpersonal relations at work, there is always a risk that inveterate smokers will indulge their habit in hidden places, thus giving rise to a potential fire hazard.

It is best therefore to try to solve the problem on a friendly basis, that is, on the basis of an agreement – reached among the employees themselves – establishing the places and times where smoking is permitted. Where the employers or the company doctor do not take the initiative in this area, consumers can raise the issue of smoking and play the role of conciliators between smokers and non-smokers by explaining the dangers of passive smoking to the former, and the difficulties involved in a blanket prohibition (as well as the difficulty of giving up the habit!) to the latter.

According to the Nassau Guardian of June 2, the Minister of Health Dr. Marcus Bethel recently received a petition from more than 258 persons in Grand Bahama, who seek to have smoking banned in workplaces.

According the Dr. Bethel, the Inter-Ministerial Core Group for Tobacco Control Matters is expected to design a research survey in collaboration with the Department of Labour to determine and recommend a timetable for the achievement of this recommendation.

"This is a matter that has to go before government and the legislature before certain things are put in place, but like every interest group in The Bahamas, their views have been expressed very forcefully and of course their views will be taken into consideration and also the views from the business sector" said Dr. Bethel.

Statistics show that of the 360,000 persons in The Bahamas, 18 per cent of men and three percent of women are smokers. They also show that last year alone, The Bahamas has imported 872,000 cases of tobacco, with a street value of over $6 million. In the United States, for example, while 55 per cent of men smoked in the 1950s, the proportion had dropped to 28 per cent by the mid 90s. The same trend is apparent in most Western European countries. Furthermore, cigarette companies are increasingly finding themselves in the position of the losing party in the proceedings instituted against them by smokers who accuse them of dishonesty.

In July last year, a court in Miami sentenced the five top American cigarette manufactures (Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard, and Lagged) to pay US$145 billion in damages to the hundreds of thousands of smokers in Florida who had brought them to court. Smokers blame cigarette manufactures for having deliberately misled public opinion about the true nature of their product, which kills no less than 430,000 Americans every year.

In The Bahamas in 1989 22 individuals died from lung cancer fourteen were males and eight were females.

In Europe recently a 35-year-old man was admitted into a great European hospital. The doctors rapidly diagnose lung cancer. Sadly, there is little they can do for the patient, he is a terminal case. They ask him whether he is a smoker and, much to their surprise, he answers "no". They ask him what his job is and the young man replies that he has always worked as a barman in a pub. Everything seems to suggest that it was passive smoking at his workplace, which caused the disease.

In certain countries, including the United States, rather poor brutal methods are sometimes used to combat smoking at the workplace – for example, screening out smokers during job interviews or introducing internal regulations whereby employees caught smoking are cautioned and 'backsliders' are dismissed. However, remarkably good results can sometimes be achieved with very simple means. Thus, for example, people who do not wish anyone to smoke into their office, into their presence or during meetings, place a small sign with the message "Please do not smoke" at the front of their desk or on their door. The right to smoke ends where others inhale the smoke without their consent.

The effect of passive smoking on lung cancer was studied by following 540 non-smoking housewives aged 40 and above and measuring their risk of developing lung cancer according to the smoking habits of their husbands.

For example, according to a recent study by Takeshi Hirayama: "In a study in 29 health center districts in Japan non smoking wives aged 40 and above were followed up for 14 years (1966-79), and standardized mortality rates for lung cancer were assessed according to the smoking habits of their husbands. Wives of heavy smokers were found to have a high risk of developing lung cancer and a dose response relation was observed.

The relation between the husband's smoking and the wife's risk of developing lung cancer showed a similar pattern when analyzed by age and occupation of the husband. The risk was particularly great in agricultural families when the husbands were aged 40-59 at enrollment. The husbands, smoking habit did not affect their wives risk of dying from other diseases such as stomach cancer, cervical cancer, and alchemic heart disease.

"These results indicate the possible importance of passive or indirect smoking as one of the causal factors of lung cancer. They also appear to explain the long-standing riddle of why many women develop lung cancer although they themselves are non-smokers. These results also caps doubt on the practice of assessing the relative risk of developing lung cancer in smokers by comparing them with non-smokers.

The possible consequences to the health of non smokers of long term exposure to cigarette smoke (passive smoking) should be studied thoroughly by the Inter-Ministerial Core Group appointed by the Health Minister, because the side stream and secondhand smoke of cigarettes contain various toxic substances, including carcinogens.

Over the past few years, the campaign against smoking in workplaces has intensified in many countries.

"Some financial arguments that Bahamian Consumer Advocates can use to convince employers to implement a smoking-control policy is as follows:

* Higher rate of absence from work among smokers due to sickness (in the United States, each smoker is estimated to cost his employer 1,000 dollars per year.).

* Higher insurance premiums for buildings where smoking is allowed.

* Repeated several times a day, the "cigarette ritual" (producing the packet from one's pocket, finding the lighter, lighting the cigarette, inhaling, putting the lighter away, stubbing out the cigarette, etc.) can entail a considerable loss of working time.

* Maintenance and cleaning costs are much higher in a company where smoking is permitted than in one where it is not. Re-painting and redecorating must be carried out five times as often.

In The Bahamas, particularly the leaders of the Consumers Movement need to join the social dialogue concerning smoking in the workplace. Delivering moralizing speeches about the evils of tobacco is not enough; only a sustained campaign will save the lives of the remaining Bahamians.

Charles Fawkes is president of the National consumer Association and editor of the Headline News, the ConsumerGuard and the Workers' Vanguard. He can be

reached at 326-6620 or via e-mail: fawkesmore@mail1.coralwave.com.

Posted Thursday 24 July, 2003