Page 73 - Illinois Association of Park Districts Benefits of Membership 2017 - 2018

Poor air quality can result in negative consequences for those who exercise. Millions of Americans are living in areas where the air carries unhealthy levels of noxious pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide (found in cigarette smoke), fine particles, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide or lead. Exercise makes people more vulnerable to health damage from these pollutants. During exercise, people may increase their oxygen intake by as much as ten times their resting level.1 Exercising in polluted air increases contact with pollutants and makes people vulnerable to health damage.
Steps must be taken to ensure clean air for today and for many generations to come
Approximately 53,000 nonsmoking Americans die annually from inhaling other people’s tobacco smoke.2 Breathing tobacco smoke can hurt anyone, but it is especially harmful to the elderly, the very young and those with existing respiratory problems. The Environmental Protection Agency ranks poor indoor air quality among the top five environmental risks to public health. Levels of indoor air pollution can be two to five times higher (and occasionally 100 times higher) than outdoor levels.3
A 2006 report from the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent.4 This finding is a major public health concern because nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.
Positive health effects of eliminating secondhand smoke in public places
Smoke free laws protect people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued an advisory that persons with heart disease should avoid indoor settings where smoking is allowed because of new evidence that even short-term exposure to secondhand smoke can trigger heart attacks. Smoke free laws protect not just those with diseases, but everyone. Air pollution levels have been found to be 82 percent lower, on average, in venues required by law to be smoke free, compared to
1 American Lung Association, “Air Pollution and Exercise,” 2000.
2 Bilofsky,Walt “Secondhand Smoke and Community Laws,” 2003.
3 American Lung Association, “Airing the Truth About Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution,” 2004. 4 http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/
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