Sure they do, but not because of somebody's ciggie in a bar.
A DA from my home town keeled over last year. He was jogging. Didn't smoke, had his inhaler with him, real health fanatic.
I have a friend who is asthmatic and smokes. Not good for her lungs, but she says she actually has attacks when she DOESN'T smoke at this point.
From the Detroit Free Press:
Asthma death tied to smoke
MSU professor documents risk in the workplace
By PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • February 9, 2008
A 19-year-old woman shows up for work at a smoke-filled Michigan bar, appearing both healthy and happy. She's worked there without incident for several months. Fifteen minutes later, she collapses and dies within minutes of that.
A mystery?
No. An autopsy showed the woman died of a severe asthma attack. Dr. Ken Rosenman, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of occupational and environmental medicine at Michigan State University's College of Medicine, said the death is directly linked to the secondhand smoke in her workplace.
He published his findings this month in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, making it what is believed to be the first documented link of secondhand smoke to an asthma-related death in an adult, Rosenman said.
"This is a very dramatic case," he said. "The other associations have been with chronic exposure. This is the first time someone dropped dead right there."
He declined to identify the woman, the bar or the town because of a confidentiality agreement with the victim's family.
The report comes at a time when legislation to ban smoking in bars and restaurants has passed the Michigan House of Representative but appears stalled in the state Senate.
Asthma is a chronic disease that leaves sufferers with extremely sensitive air passages in their lungs that can be swollen or inflamed. The problem can be triggered by air-quality problems such as smoke.
Rosenman said he suspects this death may not be unique. But no one has been able to track asthma-related deaths and their links to secondhand smoke before now. MSU, however, has three grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that allows researchers to track work-related deaths, work-related asthma and asthma deaths, making it the only institution to find the links between these incidents.
State Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, the sponsor of the smoking-ban bill in the Senate, said 32 states and Ontario have passed some version of no-smoking laws. Michigan's version bans smoking in bars and restaurants but leaves some exceptions for cigar shops, casinos and bingo halls.
"I have a granddaughter who has asthma. If you've ever seen an attack, it's not a pretty thing," he said. "We're losing 3,000 people a year in Michigan to secondhand smoke."
The Michigan Restaurant Association opposes the smoking bans. Owners should decide which places are smoking or nonsmoking, and patrons can choose whether to visit them, said Andy Deloney, its vice president of public affairs.
"If you want to talk about banning smoking because of this unfortunate incident, then let's ban smoking, period," Deloney said. "Don't say we're going to take away your individual choices in bars and restaurants but you can go into a tribal casino and smoke."
Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at
mmwalsh@freepress.com.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080209/NEWS06/802090354