Media release: December 15, 2002
But risks to bar workers still ignored by clubs and hotels
Threats
to the health of bar workers from second-hand smoke were confirmed again today
with the release of a new study of 41,000 women finding that lung cancer in
women is more strongly linked to tobacco smoke than previously recognised.
The
US study, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, examined the connection
between tobacco and adenocarcinoma – the most common form of lung cancer in
women, accounting for more than 40% of cases. While the lung cancer / tobacco
connection is well established, researchers have wondered why adenocarcinoma,
more than other lung cancers, attacks women who have never smoked. Says Dr Ping
Yang, leader of the study: "The culprit is very likely to be exposure to
second-hand smoke.” Research is
continuing into the link.
The
study found that among 10,000 non-smoking women, each year three will develop
any lung cancer - two of them adenocarcinoma. Among the same number who smoked a
pack a day for 20 to 39 years, 30 will develop lung cancer each year - 14 of
them adenocarcinoma.
"Knowing
the very strong association between smoking and adenocarcinoma is important
because researchers were beginning to look for other causes and ways to prevent
it," says Dr. Yang. "The best advice remains: don't smoke
cigarettes."
Responding
to the new evidence, Anne Jones, spokesperson for Australia’s Smokefree ’03
coalition of health and union organisations, says: “Harm to staff is accruing
as over 40,000 hospitality workers are routinely exposed for several hours a day
to second-hand smoke in their workplaces”.
The
coalition is seeking a better three-point deal for everyone by urging:
the
club and hotel associations to end their smokescreen over “harm to
profits” and offer safer venues for staff and the 80% of Australians who
don’t smoke;
smokers
to smoke outside as they already do in other workplaces; and
governments
to end the decade of delay over smoking bans by giving the hotels, clubs and
casinos a deadline to protect all workers by no later than the end of 2003.
*
The study by Dr Ping Yang will be published in the Dec. 15, 2002 issue of the
American Journal of Epidemiology.
Comment:
Anne Jones, ASH Australia
ph. 0417-227-879
Media
info:
Stafford Sanders
ph. (02) 9334-1823
SmokeFree '03 coalition:
Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union; Musicians' Union of
Australia;
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance; Australian Council of Trade
Unions;
Action on Smoking and Health Australia; The Cancer Council Australia;
National Heart Foundation of Australia; Australian Council on Smoking and Health