Thursday, February 18, 2010

Article in Recent Tulsa World

Smoke hazardous in restaurants, bars


The levels exceed EPA air-quality standards, a study finds.



By SUSAN SIMPSON NewsOK.com

Published: 2/13/2010 2:27 AM

Last Modified: 2/13/2010 5:27 AM



OKLAHOMA CITY — Tobacco smoke pollution in Oklahoma City-area restaurants and bars is extremely hazardous and far exceeds Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards, according to a report released by the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center at the OU Cancer Institute.



The center looked at tobacco smoke levels in 67 Oklahoma City-area restaurant smoking rooms and bars and found that even restaurants with smoke ventilators had pollution levels harmful to workers and patrons.



The smoke was measured as particulate pollution, which the EPA ranks as hazardous at levels of 151-250 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The particulate level averaged 380 micrograms in restaurant smoking rooms tested by the center, and it measured 655 micrograms in bars.



Dr. Robert McCaffree, co-director of the tobacco center, said researchers knew secondhand smoke was hazardous but were surprised pollution levels were so high



Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=17&articleid=20100213_17_A19_OKLAHO513454&archive=yes

1 comment:

Margaret Aycock said...

perhaps if our state government can not seem to solve this problem we can request the EPA step in and shut down bars until they clean up the air.