| June 14, 2004
Leading researcher on secondhand smoke
to offer free public lecture at MGHS
Marquette
General Health System and the Marquette County Health Department
will host a free public lecture on secondhand
smoke later this month.
“
Short Term Exposure to Secondhand Smoke: A Poison That Can Leave
You Dead” will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 22, in Conference
Room 1 at Marquette General Hospital.
Dr. Richard Sargent
Dr. Richard Sargent, the lead researcher in a secondhand smoke
study, will present at the lecture. He is chairman of Quality
Assurance at St. Peter’s Community Hospital in Helena, Mont., and serves
on the Montana Tobacco Advisory Board.
In Helena, Dr. Sargent has had a private, family healthcare practice
for 12 years. Since 2002, he authored a British Medical Journal
study on heart attacks and secondhand smoke, and has had eight
scientific presentations on tobacco use and secondhand smoke.
According to much of Dr. Sargent’s research, secondhand smoke
is particularly harmful for heart patients.
In one of his studies, he concluded that hospital admissions
for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) declined about 40 percent
during
a six-month period in which a city ordinance in Helena prohibited
smoking indoors. Once the ordinance was suspended, the admissions
for AMI went back up.
This study is also supported by laboratory data that shows how
small exposures to toxins in tobacco smoke cause a large increase
in the risk of acute cardiovascular disease. His lecture will
focus on this study, as well as the impact that secondhand smoke
has
on non-smokers compared to smokers.
Dr. Sargent has also spoken on the economic effects of clean
indoor air ordinances; cessation methods; tobacco use in pregnancy;
fetal
effects of tobacco exposure; and tobacco use and mental illness.
There is no registration required for the lecture. For more information,
call Trish Nadeau in the MGHS Education Department at 225-3470
or 1-800-562-9753, ext. 3470.
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