Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Exposure in People Over 15 years Old in Bandar Abbas

Akram Ahmadizadeh Fini^1*, Teamur Aghamolaei², Mohsen Dehghani³ and Elham Ahmadizadeh Fini⁴

1MPH Master of Public Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. 2Department of Public Health, School of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. 3Islamic Azad University of Bandar Abbas, Bandar Abbas, Iran. 4MS in Health Education Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1198

ABSTRACT:  

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure is an important health risk worldwide and one person dies every 10 seconds because of tobacco-related diseases. So we evaluate the effect of it in people over 15 years old in Bandar Abbas (Iran). This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 387 subjects( 172 male and 215 female) who were randomly selected by cluster sampling method. Data were collected using a customized questionnaire consisted of demographic characteristics and questions related to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure. The collected data were analyzed using the statistical package of SPSS (version 16). The results of the assessments showed that 98.4% and 93.5% of subjects had been exposed to cigarette and hookah smoke, respectively. Furthermore, 12.7% and 14.7% of the subjects were always and often exposed to cigarette smoke, respectively, whereas just 1.6% did not expose to cigarette smoke. About the place of the exposure, 52.2% and 31.3% of the subjects mentioned the public transportations and home, respectively. 93.4% of the subjects were exposed to hookah smoke at home. There was no significant difference between exposure of males and females regarding environmental tobacco smoke exposure. Findings of this study show that a high number of the studied population was exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Therefore, preventive efforts and educational programs are necessary to make people aware about the harmful effects of the environmental tobacco smoke.

KEYWORDS: Cigarette; hookah; environmental tobacco smoke; Passive smoking; Bandar Abbas

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