The air quality in Bend’s bars is better than many cities in the state but is still considered ”unhealthy,” according to a study released this week by the American Cancer Society.

In conducting the study, volunteers visited a random selection of 10 bars in Bend, along with bars in 11 other Oregon cities. Using aerosol monitoring devices, the volunteers measured the amount of particulate matter in the air at each bar and compared the results with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for air quality, said Courtni Dresser, state government relations director for the American Cancer Society in Oregon.

The bars tested were not named in the study results.

Mostly, the monitors were used to measure the amount of pollution caused by cigarette smoke. But Dresser said they also picked up smoke from wood stoves and, in one case in the state, a fire-eating bartender.

”We already know the science is there that tells us secondhand smoke is extremely hazardous to people’s health,” Dresser said. ”We definitely conducted (the study) to use as a tool to educate people about what’s going on in their workplace.”

In Oregon, it is illegal to smoke in most public places, although bars, restaurants with bars in them, bowling alleys, bingo halls and smoke shops are exempt from the ban. Dresser said the American Cancer Society has plans to lobby the Legislature in January for a statewide ban on smoking in all workplaces.

Secondhand smoke, she said, is a known human carcinogen responsible for about 3,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States each year. The American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Tobacco-Free Coalition of Oregon were also sponsors of the study.

”There is no safe exposure to this toxic outcome of cigarettes,” Dresser said. ”We need to make our workplaces 100 percent smoke-free. Thirty-five thousand workers in Oregon are not protected, and our goal is to get them protected.”

Wyatt Newman, chairman of the Deschutes County Tobacco Free Alliance, said the local group would support a statewide ban on smoking in workplaces.

”One of our concerns is to try to have more smoke-free places so that people are not exposed to secondary smoke,” Newman said. ”We have noticed that there are more and more restaurants in town that are going smoke free. I think that’s based upon the public’s wishes.”

The Bend Chamber of Commerce does not have a specific position on smoking in public places, said Mike Schmidt, chamber president and chief executive. In the past, he said, the organization has supported bans on smoking in restaurants.

Five of the 10 Bend establishments randomly selected for the study prohibit smoking. Kelly Davis-Martin, tobacco prevention coordinator for the Deschutes County Health Department, said that fact may have made Bend’s outcomes appear better than other cities where more smoking establishments were tested.

”We did find in Bend that the average air quality was better than most cities in Oregon we tested in. That surprised me,” Davis-Martin said. ”The reason we found that in Bend was primarily we had a higher amount of nonsmoking bars in that average.”

The only cities that registered lower levels of indoor air pollution in the study were Eugene and Corvallis, both of which, Dresser said, have citywide smoking bans that include bars. Those city bans were enacted before a state law making it illegal for cities to pass smoking ordinances that are stricter than the state’s requirements.

According to the study, the cities whose bars have the worst air quality are Hillsboro, Springfield and Oregon City.