Comprehensive smoking ban in bars, restaurants reduces physical exposure to a powerful chemical.

Minnesota hospitality workers have significantly reduced exposure to a tobacco-specific cancer-causing chemical since the Freedom to Breathe Act went into effect on Oct. 1, 2007, according to a new study released by the University of Minnesota Cancer Center and ClearWay Minnesota, an independent, nonprofit anti-tobacco organization.

The study included data from 24 nonsmoking bar, restaurant and bowling-alley employees in the state who were typically not exposed to secondhand smoke except in their workplaces.

The study measured workers’ exposure to cotinine (a measure of nicotine exposure) and NNAL (a by-product of a potent lung cancer-causing toxin) before and after the Freedom to Breathe Act took effect. Each participant submitted urine samples taken before and after the law was enacted and a detailed questionnaire to the University of Minnesota research team for analysis.

Major findings indicate an 83 percent decrease in cotinine levels and an 85 percent decrease in NNAL levels inside study participants’ bodies.

“The comprehensive smoking ban has had a significant impact in reducing bodily exposure to a powerful lung cancer-causing agent and nicotine in our hospitality workers,” said the lead investigator, Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD, a nationally respected tobacco researcher.

“Protecting our workers (and patrons) from known cancer-causing agents, which have been demonstrated to be present in the urine of these workers prior to the smoking ban, should continue to be a high priority,” said Hatsukami, Forster Family Professor in Cancer Prevention, University of Minnesota Cancer Center.

The findings confirm previous University of Minnesota Cancer Center studies showing that nonsmoking restaurant workers and casino patrons have significantly higher levels of cancer-causing toxins in their bodies after working in or visiting establishments that allow smoking. Other research has estimated that restaurant and bar employees who do not smoke have about a 50 percent higher risk of contracting lung cancer than the general population.