In advance of the Smoking ban due to come
into effect in the UK on 1st July 07, the propaganda is beginning to ramp up.
I use the word propaganda because the
advertising is not persuasive detail giving all the facts, but is blatant in
its approach in trying to scare people into leaving cigarettes alone. How dare they be so condescending and treat
me and everyone else in Britain like idiots.
More nanny state, mushroom farm
propaganda. Keep us in the dark and feed
us bullshit.
There is a long list of chemicals being
extolled as being bad for us, with chemical hazard warnings, and questions as
to what would happen if a spillage of these chemicals occurred, but neither the
advertisement or the website of Cancer Research who sponsor the advertising, give any substantive
details or figures on the amounts of the chemicals found either in cigarettes
or in secondary smoke.
As with any substance, if you take in too
much its going to be bad for you, but the crude method being employed in these
adverts is like saying, if a chemical tanker crashes at the end of the street,
this will be the effect, if you smoke a cigarette, the effect will be exactly
the same.
So why do they not publish the figures in
their adverts. How many parts per
million of each of the chemicals are present in a cigarette, or more
importantly in secondary smoke (which is the basis of the ban).
Because they cant. The figures don’t add
up, so logically neither would the political argument to introduce the ban and
take away my freedom of informed choice.
The most lethal of the chemicals in
question is Benzene, (not to be confused with Benzine), without doubt a human
carcinogen. Long-term high level exposure can result in serious blood disorders such
as anaemia and leukaemia.
Because it is not working to a political
agenda, I have gleaned my figures from a report based on results
from the W.H.O. (World Health Organisation), and tend to believe that their
figures are probably more unbiased and accurate than those produced by the UK
Government.
As different sources report results using a
mix of micrograms ppb (parts per billion) and milligrams ppm (parts per
million), the conversion calculator is 1 micrograms = 0.001 milligrams
Background levels of benzene in air range
from 2.8 to 20 parts of benzene per billion parts air.
People living in cities or industrial areas
are generally exposed to higher levels of benzene in air than those living in
rural areas. Benzene levels in the home are usually higher than outdoor levels.
People living around hazardous waste sites, petroleum refining operations,
petrochemical manufacturing sites, or petrol stations may be exposed to higher
levels of benzene in air. Workers who may be exposed to high levels of benzene
because of their occupations include steel workers, printers, rubber workers,
shoe makers, laboratory technicians, and petrol station employees.
Brief exposure (5-10 minutes) to very high
levels of benzene in air (10,000-20,000 ppm) can result in death. Lower levels
(700-3,000 ppm) can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches,
tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. In most cases, people will stop
feeling these effects when they stop being exposed and begin to breathe fresh
air. ref
These are the levels of exposure being suggested
in the propaganda advertisements.
An important fact when calculating the
dangers of Benzene is that about half of the benzene you breathe in leaves your
body when you breathe out. Only half passes through the lining of your lungs
and enters your bloodstream.
There are several sources of exposure to
benzene for the general public. Many people are voluntarily exposed to benzene
when they smoke cigarettes. Smoking 30 cigarettes per day produces about 1800
microgrammes of benzene or 1.8 ppm, so the retained inhalation rate would be
0.9 ppm, whilst passive smoking contributes about 50 microgrammes a day, or
0.05 milligrams (ppm), retained value 0.025 ppm.
Note that these figures are measured at the
point of source, i.e. the cigarette, and are PER DAY.
The evaporation rate of benzene is also very
high, so by the time that secondary smoke has risen by approximately 10 inches
above a cigarette, the level of benzene is so low that it becomes almost
immeasurable.
Important. The HSE has set a permissible
exposure limit of 1 part of benzene per million parts of air (1 ppm) in the
workplace during an 8-hour workday. Work with Benzene
is subject to the Control
of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002. This is the
benchmark that the government are using for those working with Benzene.
Logically, this could equate to 3 ppm in a
24 hour period. But for the purposes of this exercise, lets stick to the 1 ppm
level.
Using the World Health Organisation’s
figures, passive smoking sits well within published government safety limits,
and unless you are sitting right over the cigarette, a smoke filled room
carries so little benzene…..
For the direct smoker, I admit that the
figures are closer to the safety limit.
30 cigarettes a day produces about 1800 microgrammes of benzene, 1.8
ppm, or 20 cigarettes a day will produce approx 1200 microgrammes, 1.2 ppm
(just above the HSE safety limit), but bearing in mind that approx half of the benzene
you breathe in leaves your body when you breathe out, well within the HSE limits.
So to summarise, exposure to (700-3,000
ppm) of benzene in 15 minutes can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart
rate, headaches, tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness, but according to the
government cigarettes at 0.9 ppm per DAY will kill you.
Essentially, using the governments own benchmark
figures, smoking in the workplace is not unsafe, only the legislation banning
it.
Other sources of benzene include indoor and
outdoor air (where benzene is created by city traffic, open fires and stoves),
car refuelling and travelling in a vehicle. Benzene is also found naturally in
foods such as fish or grilled meat.
If smoking were really as bad as the
advertisements make out, which the figures do not back up, AND there had been such a
national demand for no-smoking pubs, where were the entrepreneurs, the mass of thriving no-smoking pubs ahead of the ban. Many breweries had tried setting up no-smoking
pubs in the past, but found it so uneconomical because no-one wanted it, they
gave up.
HSE wont lower the limits down to the figures for secondary smoke,
because they know half the factories in the UK would
close down, but they happy to control our freedoms and individual decision
making.
I haven’t had time to check all the other
substances listed in the propaganda, but am fairly sure the same kind of
results will emerge.
Now, I have to declare my own bias
here. I am a smoker, and I am a very
hacked off smoker.
I am also an informed smoker and I am hacked
off because again we have been lied to, tricked, hoodwinked with false figures
and had our freedoms curtailed by the whim of the few.
We want facts, not fait acomplis, facts so that we can make our own minds up, or at the very least a referrendum.
The State nannies who have taken over policy decision making have taken away
yet another of my freedoms of choice.
God made man with free choice, the
government takes it away……with propaganda on the TV.
