HEALTHWATCH : Clearing the Air : Trickle-down victims feel the effects of smoking, a point underscored by local doctors and a new federal study.

For the past decade, doctors have been intensifying their study of the effects of tobacco smoke on nonsmokers.

But it wasn’t until two weeks ago, when the Environmental Protection Agency published a report on secondary exposure to smoke, that the masses really took notice.

According to the EPA’s report, secondhand smoke is responsible, annually, for about 3,000 lung cancer deaths, 150,000 to 300,000 cases of respiratory infection among infants and young children, more than 8,000 asthma cases among children, worsening asthma in about 200,000 asthmatic children and a series of other maladies. The EPA officially classified tobacco smoke as a Group A carcinogen, a classification whose members include radon, benzene and asbestos.

It’s kind of hard not to take notice. But what exactly do these frightening bits of information mean?

“If you look at a cigarette, just the tar has more than 4,000 chemicals, 40 of them are known carcinogens, and 400 of them are toxic chemicals,” said lung specialist Dr. George Yu, an administrator with the American Lung Assn. of Ventura County. “They are released into the air, and whoever walks by the (cigarette) can inhale this secondhand smoke. If the exposure is repetitive it can cause cancer.”

Consider that the average person generally takes about 12 to 15 breaths a minute, and the problem begins to make sense.

Dr. Mark Starr, a pulmonary specialist at Los Robles Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, explained that under normal conditions, glands in the lung produce secretions of mucus. Small hairs in the lung, known as cilia, move those secretions out. Starr said smoke can increase the production of mucus but thwart the ability of the hairs to transport the secretions.

“You can develop the same kind of cough and have the difficulty clearing secretions that smokers have,” he said, “just by being around the smoke.”

The potential for lung problems is intensified, of course, for people with asthma. “Smoke itself is an irritant,” Starr said, explaining that it can exacerbate the symptoms of asthma. He said asthmatics tend to overrespond to certain stimuli in the air, causing the airway to narrow. Smoke is one of those stimuli.

Whether asthmatic or not, children are likely to have more severe reactions to smoke than adults because their lungs aren’t as developed. Damage to their bronchial tubes can lead to more serious blockage, because the airways are smaller than those of adults.

Secondary smoke can also make it more difficult for children to recover from their usual ailments.

“Children go to school and are exposed to other children who have the flu and other respiratory infections--viral or bacterial--that cause inflammation,” said Dr. Gurdip Flora, pulmonologist at Simi Valley Hospital. “If they’re constantly bombarded with irritants at home, their healing is going to be slower.”

Flora said the effect of secondary exposure to smoke depends a lot on the concentration of the smoke.

“If it’s in a small room, like a bar or a small apartment, with very poor ventilation,” he said, “then you’re more likely to have effects from passive smoke than in a larger room with good ventilation.”

Flora offered some suggestions on dealing with smoke in tight confines. “If other people are smoking in the car, lower the window and start breathing fresh air. If you go to a bar and it’s smoke-filled . . . my suggestion would be don’t even go there,” he said. “Just stay away from high concentrations of exhaled particles in the environment.”

Much of that high concentration can be found in the workplace. Nan Waltman, a senior health educator with the Ventura County Tobacco Education and Control Center, said it is in the workplace--restaurants included--that people are at particular risk to being exposed to secondary smoke.

“Current (smoking) ordinances protect the public, but workers are not protected,” she said. “It is pretty much left to the discretion of employers whether workers are exposed or not exposed, and the employer is in no position to judge that.”

Waltman said she expects the EPA report to lead employers to make rules regarding smoking more stringent. “(The report) makes workers aware they are in danger and employers aware of their responsibility,” she said. “They don’t want to be liable, or exposed, themselves.”