This website guides visitors in running interactive computer models that simulate exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke in homes, cars, restaurants, pubs, and most any other location.
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An article in the Orange County register presents a smoker who is also a smog technician. Compared to the emissions from the tailpipe of a car, the smoker is "a gross polluter." In fact, while cars only emit about 200 micrograms of fine particle mass per mile driven, a smoked cigarette emits about 10,000 micrograms. What does this mean for people riding inside a car with a smoker? You can explore this issue using the simulations available on this website.
The Wikipedia website has an ongoing list of all the current smoking bans in effect in the United States. Do the potential levels of secondhand smoke in the banned locations justify the ban? You can simulate indoor levels of secondhand smoke using some of the tools on this website.
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland, California has passed a law banning outdoor smoking in ATM lines, parks, bus stops, and golf courses.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that bans smoking in cars when there are hildren 17 or under. Those caught doing so will face a $100 fine. The infraction will be a secondary offense, meaning that a police officer could not stop a motorist only for smoking in a car with a minor. Use the car exposure simulation to see how high secondhand smoke levels can be in cars.
The city of Belmont, California has passed a law banning smoking inside multi-unit housing. Soon, we at SimSmoke.Org will offer tools to explore exposures caused by leakage or drift of secondhand smoke between apartment or condominium units.
The founder of the SimSmoke.Org website is now contributing to a new website TobaccoSmoke.Org, which aims to disseminate scientific information on exposure to secondhand smoke to the public. The new website contains booklets and briefings on published exposure measurements in cars, homes, the outdoors, and other locations.
A new article has been published (July 2007) on the amount of secondhand smoke air pollution that can occur in automobiles under various conditions. The Stanford University researchers (Ott, Klepeis, and Switzer) also measured many air exchange rates for different types of automobiles, which are valuable for use in simulating in-vehicle exposures to secondhand smoke as we do on the SimSmoke.Org website.
