Smoking spreads covid-19 up to 8 meters away

A warning issued by the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) says that smoking spreads Covid-19 by up to eight metres away making terraces and other open air places unsafe. SEPAR is particularly concerned about its effects on hospitality workers as it is on passive smokers using the facilities.  
The Society says that it has already submitted to the Ministry of Health five “indispensable” measures that should be included in the reform of the Anti-Tobacco Law, one of which is that the terraces remain free of tobacco and the toxins released by the electronic devices used to vape.
In their submission they have said: “this measure should not be approved only be given to prevent the spread of COVID-19 , but permanently, so that it helps to prevent the spread of this and other respiratory infections.”
According to the organisation tobacco kills 60,000 people a year in Spain with estimates putting the death of passive smokers around 22,000.
The organisation goes on to say that there has been an increase in air pollution from tobacco in open environments such as the terraces in recent years. They put the percentage of tobacco toxins in these spaces between 30 and 50% for each smoker who uses these environments to smoke.
Harmful gases and particles are said not only to come from the tobacco smoke, but also from the butts or from the mixture of these toxins from the smoker with gases of the atmosphere. They add: “These chemical agents are maintained over time , as they adhere to clothing, objects or other facilities on the terraces, and are even residually maintained in the smoker’s exhalation for at least 10 minutes after finishing their last cigarette.”
Exposure in non-smokers carries a higher risk of developing diseases such as ischemic heart disease, neoplasms or exacerbations of chronic respiratory diseases, especially in hotel workers or vulnerable populations such as children or pregnant women according to the society.

Increased risk of covid-19

SEPAR also warns that there is solid scientific evidence that demonstrates a dangerous association between COVID-19 and tobacco, since exposure to tobacco toxins is related to more serious presentations and a worse outcome of this disease.
“The presence of a history of smoking increases by 79% more the chances of needing ICU admission or dying and by 96% of developing severe COVID-19.
“The spread of the SARS CoV2 virus is caused by aerosols when breathing, being greater when carrying out activities such as smoking or vaping . In spaces with smokers or vapers, coronaviruses with diameters of 0.1 microns can join larger tobacco smoke particles, being able to these aerosols loaded with viral particles reach distances of 8 meters,” they emphasize.
“Therefore -summarizes the medical society-, the smoke exhaled from conventional tobacco and electronic devices represents an excellent vehicle for the transmission of virus particles between people.”
On the other hand, smokers and non-smokers remain on the terraces for a longer time without masks, increasing the risk that smoking spreads covid-19, concludes SEPAR. They insist this necessitates the “indispensable” need for the reform of the Anti-Tobacco Law extend the prohibition of smoking in open public spaces such as terraces.

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