[Passive smoking].

Passive smoking is the involuntary inspiration of smoky indoor air. Based on the information available today, it may be assumed that passive smoking normally is no health hazard as far as the classical smoker's diseases (lung cancer, myocardial infarct, etc.) are concerned. Nevertheless, it is probable that irritations caused by tobacco smoke have an unfavorable influence on the health of small children and that of already sick persons. The main problem of passive smoking is annoyance due to odor and irritations of eyes and respiratory organs. Our investigations in a climatic chamber with healthy subjects show that air pollution caused by tobacco smoke as indicated by 5 ppm CO leads to marked eye irritations--objectively as well as subjectively--in 15 to 20% of the subjects. This corresponds to smoking 10 cigarettes per hour in a small room with an air ventilation rate of four times per hour. If air pollution caused by tobacco smoke lies below the level of 2 ppm CO, irritations and annoyance for healthy persons are regarded as low and tolerable. This corresponds to about four cigarettes per hour under the same circumstances.