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How many deaths will it take? A death from asthma associated with work‐related environmental tobacco smoke
Author(s) -
Stanbury Martha,
Chester Debra,
Hanna Elizabeth A.,
Rosenman Kenneth D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.20538
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , environmental health , tobacco smoke , passive smoking , secondhand smoke , public health , observational study , cause of death , family medicine , pathology , disease
Background Despite epidemiologic, experimental and observational data on the association of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and adverse health effects, bar and restaurant workers remain exposed to ETS in the majority of states and countries. Methods Three public health surveillance systems were used to identify and conduct a follow‐up investigation of a reported acute asthma death of a young waitress in a bar. Results The waitress collapsed at the bar where she worked and was declared dead shortly thereafter. Evaluation of the circumstances of her death and her medical history concluded that her death was from acute asthma due to environmental tobacco smoke at work. Conclusions This is the first reported acute asthma death associated with work‐related ETS. Recent studies of asthma among bar and restaurant workers before and after smoking bans support this association. This death dramatizes the need to enact legal protections for workers in the hospitality industry from secondhand smoke. Am. J. Ind. Med. 51:111–116, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.