Untitled

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 2 June 1906, Page 49

The •’Lancet” has something to say of the injurious effects of inhaling tobacco smoke in a railway carriage which is inadequately ventilated: —“The poisonous effects of tobacco smoking are most marked when the smoke is inhaled or when it is brought into intimate contact with the lung cells and conveyed directly into the blood. The cigarette-smoker who ‘swallows the smoke/ as it is often said, deliberately exposes himself to the risk of unmistakably poisonous symptoms. as are manifested in palpitation of the heart, dyspeptic disturbances, impairment of vision, headache, breathlessness, malaise, and so on. ami precisely the same risk is run by those who remain long in a carriage which is practically always full of smoke for the want of efficient means of ventilation” Indeed. the ••Lancet” asserts, the risk in the latter case is greater, “because not only is the smoke drawn from the tobacco inhaled, but that escaping from the bowl of the pipe or from the lighted end of the cigarette or cigar is inhaled also.” It is well known, the journal goes on to say. that the smoke of smouldering tobacco has very powerful physiological effects: “Amongst the highly toxic products occurring freely in the tobaccosmoke is carbon monoxide, whi h has disastrous effects upon the oxygen carrying power of the blood. Smokers in the railway carriage should guard themselves against the evils of ir.ualing smoke by agreeing to give the smoke an outlet by opening or partly opening tbe window that is to say. if the ventilating arrangement® provided prove to be useless, as i< nearly always the case. The smoker, who is jealous of his health, enjoys smoking without having recourse to inhaling the smoke, and he should see that his rare to avoid the dangerous process of directly inhaling tobacco smoke is not defeated by smoking ir. a smoke contaminated atmosphere which is practically never changed.” For the same reason, it is pointed out. the smok-ing-concert is an institution not. free from danger, and is a very frequent cm>ri>n nf disturbance to brail