What are the health effects of ETS?
Research shows that ETS may cause a range of adverse health effects. Some of these are: • increased risk of lung cancer; • increased risk of heart disease and stroke; • upper/lower respiratory tract irritation; • eye irritation; • coughing; • headaches; and • increased respiratory problems in asthmatics. The risks to health from a complex chemical mixture such as ETS are hard to establish through epidemiological studies or experiments. As a result there are no occupational exposure standards established for ETS. This makes ETS different from many other chemicals in the workplace. It also makes it more difficult to establish appropriate controls.
