Second-hand smoke exposure in a sample of European hospitals (2007)

¹ Tobacco Control Research Unit, Institut Català d'Oncologia-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Spain; Dept of Clinical Sciences, Campus de Bellvitge, Universitat de Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Spain; and Catalan Network of Smoke-free Hospitals, Barcelona, Spain
² Evaluation & Intervention Methods Unit, Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB), Barcelona, Spain; and CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain
³ Tobacco Research Unit, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori/SIMG-Italian College GPs, Milan, Italy
⁴ European Network of Smoke-free Hospitals, Paris, France
⁵ Evaluation & Intervention Methods Unit, Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain; and Dept of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: efernandez{at}ico.scs.es.

	Abstract

Smoking in hospitals is banned in many European countries; nevertheless, their level of compliance is diverse, and in some cases there are still smoking areas. This study describes the levels of second-hand smoke, as derived from respirable suspended particles measurements, in a sample of European hospitals during the year 2007.

This is a multicenter, descriptive, cross-sectional study carried out in 30 hospitals in 7 European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Romania, and Spain). We measured particulate matter <2.5 µm in diameter (PM_2.5) by means of a hand-held laser-operated monitor of particle size and mass concentration in six selected indoor locations. We computed medians and interquartile ranges of PM_2.5 concentrations to describe the data by country and location of measurement.

The median PM_2.5 concentration in all countries and locations was 3.0 µg·m^-3, with half of the measurements between 2.0 and 7.0 µg·m^-3. PM_2.5 levels were similar across countries. Eleven measures (5.5%) were over 25.0 µg·m^-3, which is the 24-hour average limit recommended by WHO for outdoor air quality guideline.

Our results showed that exposure to second-hand smoke in this sample of European hospitals is very low and can be easily monitored to assure smoke-free legislation compliance.