News

| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View Comments(8)
TEST: Rachel in a Deansgate pub
TEST: Rachel in a Deansgate pub
advertisement

Peril of smoky pubs

Rebecca Camber
15/ 2/2005

SPENDING just 10 minutes in a smoky Manchester pub has the same effect on your lungs as smoking several cigarettes, according to health campaigners.

Pat Karney, head of the Greater Manchester Tobacco-Free Project, took to the pubs of Manchester to test how inhaling other people's cigarette smoke can affect you.

He was astonished after tests revealed that standing in a pub where five to 10 people were smoking for just 10 minutes had the same effect on your lungs as smoking several cigarettes.

When an expert carried out a carbon monoxide test in a smoky pub on Deansgate on Rachel Zammit - a stop-smoking adviser who has never smoked - he found her lungs had the same level of carbon monoxide as a heavy smoker.

Lungs

But in a pub that had banned smoking, the same test showed the level dropped to that of a non-smoker.

Coun Karney has now called for more pubs to ban smoking.

"We had very dramatic results between a Wetherspoons pub on Deansgate - a smoking pub - and Sinclair's Oyster Bar, which has banned smoking," he said. "It took just a few minutes for the lungs to feel the effects of second-hand smoke.

"Passive smoking can increase the risk of a heart attack or lung cancer by up to 25 per cent. What chance do bar staff in Manchester have of protecting themselves? As more pubs go smoke-free, ones that don't risk staff taking legal action for exposure to second-hand smoke."

Manchester University senior lecturer in public health, Dr Richard Edwards, who conducted the test, said: "Just 10 minutes in a bar, which wasn't even very smoky, made the lungs of a non-smoker the same as a smoker. It is very worrying, considering long-term exposure to such levels can cause serious damage."

The news comes after the Manchester Evening News launched a hotline to help smokers quit, in conjunction with Greater Manchester NHS services. If you want to quit, call 0800 328 8534 from 9am to 5pm.

Should smoking in all public places be banned? Have your say.


| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View CommentsView Comments(8)


Most recent 2 of 8 user comments

   D Adams of Collyhurst. Lung Cancer is one 'British Tadition' we could well do without. But try doing the maths: 75% of the population are non-smokers, therefore, the majority rules, and a ban in pubs will actually result in MORE people going out for a drink - myself included.
Kyla, Manchester
6/04/2005 at 13:34

Offensive or Inappropriate?

   The normal way of getting rid of cigarette smoke is to extract it. This of course extracts all the heat from a room. There is a simple smoke destroyer which gathers contaminated air in, actually destroys it and returns fresh warm air into the room. Lightclean technology is a permanent catalyst which can even destroy cigarette smells if the active coating is sprayed onto the curtains and wals of the room. if the walls
chris gummer, worcester
6/04/2005 at 12:07

Offensive or Inappropriate?

Newsletter Sign Up
 
Have your say Sign up to the weekly news
update

Latest stories
 

 
Internal links
 
Sister Charlotte
 

What do you think of Astrology?

84%
16%