03-29-16 Health and Public Safety

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cause among smokers and non - smokers heart disease, lung disease, cancer, and stroke. Approximately 600,000 people die each year worldwide from second hand smoke. Regarding second hand aerosol, the byproduct of e- cigarettes and vaping, at least ten (10) chemicals identified in ESD aerosol are carcinogens and toxins, including benzene, formaldehyde and nicotine. The World Health Organization and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommend that e- cigarettes not be used indoors or in workplaces. Passing a clean air ordinance will have a tremendous public health impact on our city and studies have shown this. Smoke free laws covering at least fifty (50) percent of a counties population in the U.S. saw a twenty (20) percent reduction in heart attacks and an eleven (11) percent reduction in pulmonary disease. Just in the first year when New York passed a clean air ordinance they saw an eight (8) percent decrease in hospital admissions for heart attacks and a $56 million dollar decrease in hospital costs. These are statistics but they affect real people. This means saving people's lives with less heart attacks and less pulmonary diseases. When we talk about numbers we lose the fact that these are people and this ordinance can improve people's lives and health. Clean air ordinances have demonstrated reductions in heart attacks angina asthma, strokes, heath disease, lunge disease and cancer. ' Some people make the argument that it is an adult's decision in where they work and where th patronize businesses. However, we don't use the same logic when a business or factory has ey dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. We don't just tell workers that you're an adult you can make a choice to work in that factory and we don't tell members of the public that if they're going to be shopping at a store with dangerous levels of carbon monoxide that they can simply make a choice as an adult. We have laws that protect the public and laws that protect workers from things like carbon monoxide. One of the seventy (70) carcinogens in second hand smoke is carbon monoxide. The vast majority of economic research concludes there is no negative economic impact to a clean air ordinance. These are academic, peer reviewed, and published in highly respected journals. There are some other outlier studies that say the opposite but the majority o funded by the tobacco industry. J y f those are There is a recent CDC study, which was the most comprehensive study to date on this issue which looked at 216 cities in eight (8) states without statewide smoke -free air laws. This is similar to the situations South Bend would be in if we pass this ordinance. The study stated equivocally that smoke free laws did not have an adverse economic impact and it rovi ded a small economic benefit to cities in one (1) state. This study cited over twenty-two (22 ) peer reviewed academic research articles. More importantly, smoke -free laws improve both employee and public health. y The Indiana State Department of Health estimates the cost of second hand smoke a dollars for the City of South Bend. t $20 million 2