Pacific Basin Consortium on Hazardous Waste:
Environmental and Health Studies

TOBACCO AND INDOOR AIR QUALITY

September 20, 2001
Audio Visual Room
National Engineering Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City

Lecturer: ANNETTE M. DAVID, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.O.E.M.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Internal Medicine
Public Health, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Bad air inside your home, workplace, or school can cause problems for adults and children. Environmental tobacco smoke also called "secondhand smoke" is reportedly a major indoor air pollutant which contains chemicals including known poisons such as formaldehyde and carbon monoxide, as well as carcinogens.

This workshop covered the following topics:
· Overview of indoor air quality and health concerns
· Contribution of tobacco smoke to indoor air quality contamination in the Philippine setting
· Current evidence linking second hand smoke in indoor air to adverse health effects
· Tobacco industry's response to tobacco smoke as an indoor air contaminant
· Proposed engineering solutions to indoor air problems, including second hand smoke
· Components of a comprehensive strategy to reduce indoor air quality contamination by tobacco smoke

Dr. Annette David is a Technical Officer of the Tobacco-Free Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO). She is also a Clinical Associate Professor and attending physician at the Pulmonary Division, Department of Medicine and Department of Physiology at UP-PGH.

Dr. David has numerous publications to her credit, which is includes the DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Strategy-Short) in the Workplace, "Children's Health 2025", a joint collaborative project of the Department of Health and UNICEF and the Country Profiles for Tobacco or Health 2000 of the WHO.

Dr. David graduated Summa cum laude from the University of the Philippines and was awarded the Outstanding in Academics and Most Outstanding Clinical Clerk. She completed her Master of Public Health at the Columbia University in New York in 1990.

She is a fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and recipient of various awards including the prestigious The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines Award for Environmental Medicine for the year 2000.