'Passive smoking kills 600k per annum'
A new global study has found that passive smoking kills more than 600 thousand people worldwide every year, of whom nearly a third are children.
The study, published in the latest edition of the British medical journal, the Lancet, indicates that deaths among adults were spread evenly in poor and rich nations.
Based on 2004 data from 192 countries, the figures show smoking in that year killed almost six million people, either actively or passively by claiming the lives of non-smokers.
Researchers maintain that second-hand smoking accounted for one percent of deaths around the world in 2004.
"Exposure to second-hand smoke is still one of the most common indoor pollutants worldwide," says Dr. Annette Pruss-Ustun, with the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.
"On the basis of the proportions of second-hand smoke exposure, as many as 40 per cent of children, 35 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke indoors, added Pruss-Ustun.
According to researchers, children are the group most heavily exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke, and about 165,000 of them die as a result.
The study has also demonstrated that poverty exacerbates situations for children.
Researchers have recommended applying the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It includes measures such as tobacco tax hikes, advertising bans, and the use of nondescript packaging.
Source: presstv.ir
