“High risk of cancer”

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 16

“High risk of cancer”

Sir, — Dr W. A. Denny (“The Press,” August 25) suggests there is no significant risk in non-smokers inhaling exhaled tobacco smoke and they would be advised to protest against smoking from a comfort angle. I must be an exception to the rule, for if I attend a meeting where there is considerable cigarette smoke, my eyes become sore and I have breathing discomfort. Yet practical tests by interior environment specialists indicate that unless air in the average meeting room is changed at a greater rate than eight times an hour, the suspended particulate matter exceeds the United States threshhold criterion 75 micrograms per cubic metre. This test assumed that half the occupants did not smoke, and the remainder smoked tobacco at the rate of 1.29 cigarettes an hour. The energy crisis is probably forcing people to reduce ventilation to a minimum these days; perhaps we will have smokier rooms? — Yours, etc., PATRICK NEARY. August 26, 1979.