Passive Smoking and Uptake of Carbon Monoxide in Flight Attendants
- Douglas B. Duncan, MD;
- Peter P. Greaney, MD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
To the Editor.— There is concern about the health effects of passive smoking.1 Because of concern among flight attendants about passive exposure to cigarette smoke during work on commercial aircraft, a preliminary investigation was conducted to search for an increase in expired air (end tidal) carbon monoxide in flight attendants after work. Expired air (end tidal) carbon monoxide was chosen because carbon monoxide concentration is known to vary linearly with the rate of cigarette burning in an environment.2
Volunteers gave their informed consent after the nature of the procedures had been explained to them. Nonsmoking volunteer flight attendants filled out health history questionnaires before flight and recorded their observations during flight. Expired air (end tidal) carbon monoxide was measured before and after each flight for each volunteer. All flights were "turnaround" flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu and back. These flights were of about five hours' duration in
