Fact Sheets/Brochures
Laws that limit how and where people may smoke should survive a legal challenge claiming that smoking is protected by the state or federal constitution. Smoking is not mentioned anywhere in either constitution. Nevertheless, some people may claim that there is a fundamental “right to smoke.”
Secondhand Smoke in Multi-Unit Housing
A Fact Sheet from the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
- Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke (SHS):
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified SHS as a group A carcinogen [such as, asbestos, arsenic, benzene and radon gas], the most dangerous class of carcinogens.
- The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to SHS.
- The California Air Resources Board has put SHS is the same category as the most toxic automotive and industrial air pollutants, categorizing it as a toxic air contaminant, for which no safe of level of exposure.
- Only 5 minutes of exposure to SHS causes the main artery carrying blood from the aorta, to stiffen as much as if the person had smoked a cigarette, thereby causing the heart to work harder to pump blood.
- 30 minutes of exposure to SHS reduces the arterial function of a non-smoker’s circulatory system to that of an active smoker’s, increasing the nonsmoker’s risk of heart disease.
- Exposure to outdoor SHS may present a hazard under certain conditions of wind and smoker proximity.
