Nonsmoking Workers and Customers in Some Oklahoma and Indianapolis Restaurants Now At Greater Risk of Fatal Heart Attacks than Smokers

Due to the implementation of unjustified (from a public health perspective) smoking policies in Oklahoma and Indianapolis that went into effect yesterday, nonsmoking workers in some restaurants in these places are now at great risk of suffering a fatal heart attack.

A number of restaurant workers in Oklahoma, where some restaurants have apparently decided to allow smoking in enclosed, separately ventilated areas, will now be exposed to greatly increased levels of secondhand smoke. And customers in these smoking rooms will also be exposed to greatly increased levels of tobacco smoke. Average levels of nicotine in these rooms has been shown to be more than 10 times higher than if smoking is simply allowed anywhere in the restaurant.

A number of restaurant workers in Indianapolis, where some restaurants have decided to allow smoking by banning kids, will also now be exposed to greatly increased levels of secondhand smoke, as smokers shift over to these restaurants from those that decided to allow kids rather than smoking. And customers in these restaurants will also be exposed to higher levels of secondhand smoke.

Now according to a statement by a national anti-smoking group - Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) - even 30 minutes of exposure to drifting tobacco smoke increases the risk of a fatal heart attack in a nonsmoker to that of a smoker. So I think it is entirely accurate to conclude, then, that a nonsmoking worker who is exposed to secondhand smoke for 40 or more hours per week and at extremely high levels must be at an astronomically increased heart attack risk, and their risk must in fact be higher than that of a smoker.

And nonsmoking customers are also at greater risk of a fatal heart attack than smokers because just 30 minutes of exposure puts them at equivalent fatal heart attack risk. So unless they gulp down their meals in 30 minutes or less, their risk of a heart attack is actually greater than that of a smoker, even if they just eat in one of these restaurants once.

So thanks to the new smoking policies in Oklahoma and Indianapolis, nonsmoking workers and customers in many of the restaurants in those places are now at an even higher risk of dropping dead of a fatal heart attack than smokers.

It is despicable to me that the anti-smoking movement has created such a terrible situation in which a fair number of nonsmokers have, thanks to policies we have supported, now been put at greater risk of a fatal heart attack than even smokers who have been smoking for their entire lives.