University of OtagoMonday 09 July 2012, 2:01PM
Media release from University of Otago
A study by the University of Otago, Wellington has found that
smoking on city street footpaths increases the amount of dangerous
fine particulates in city air.
The five week long study by public health researchers used a
sensitive air monitor to measure air quality in the Lower Hutt
shopping centre as they passed 284 people who were smoking on the
footpaths.
They found that when smokers were observed, at an average distance
of 2.6 metres, there was an average 70% more fine particulates in
the air (PM2.5 or less than 2.5mm in diameter) than when there were
no smokers around.
When standing next to a smoker at a bus stop, the mean fine
particulate pollution level was 16 times the background level, with
a peak of 26 times the background level.
One of the researchers, Dr George Thomson, pointed out that the
problem of smoking on city streets is being addressed
internationally with a growing number of cities successfully
adopting smokefree policies for at least some outdoor parts of
shopping areas. These cities include Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and
many in California and Japan.
"Much of the impetus for these policies is to denormalise smoking
further, and to decrease the example of smoking to children," he
says. "Reducing visible smoking also makes it easier for smokers to
quit and to stay quit."
Study co-author, Associate Professor Nick Wilson says that city
councils should do more to help protect the health of pedestrians,
and especially those in outdoor pavement seating, by implementing
smokefree policies for shopping areas. "They should be particularly
concerned about protecting bar and restaurant workers who
frequently have to breathe in second hand smoke when servicing
outdoor tables with smokers," he says.
Other likely benefits of smokefree streets would be decreased
street cleaning costs from less cigarette butt litter, a better
public image for a city, the reduction of second hand smoke
drifting into shops and offices, and reducing the nuisance impact
for others walking on footpaths.
The researchers found the results of this study were consistent
with similar research along streets in downtown Wellington, even
though there were less pedestrians and smokers in Lower Hutt.
The study has been published in the international journal Health
& Place, and the research was funded by the Cancer Society of
New Zealand, Wellington Branch.
The study is available at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829212001025
Patel V, Thomson G, Wilson N. Smoking increases air pollution
levels in city streets: Observational and fine particulate data.
Health and Place Online May 29, 2012. DOI :
10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.05.005