Second Hand Smoking Rub Out 600,000 Lives Every Year

By BOB Goswami

WORLD NEWS - Smoking kills, passive smoking as well. A recent study shows an alarming report that the passive smoking is killing, if not more than first hand smoke. The global study conducted by World Health Organization (WHO) says passive smoking kills about 600,000 deaths every year.

The most vulnerable section of passive smoking are children who are often exposed to smoke at home. The WHO report says one-third of children are poisoned by passive smoking every year.

The study is conducted in 192 countries and found that children are often victimized of passive smoking. They are often in a high risk zone of sudden infant death syndrome, pneumonia and asthma. For elders passive smoking causes heart disease, respiratory illness and lung cancer.

"This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco," said Armando Peruga, of the WHO's Tobacco-Free Initiative, who led the study.

Smoking related deaths are mainly occurred in South East Asia and Africa and about 165,000 children are died of smoking-related respiratory infections. It is reported that children are most exposed group, especially in their own houses.

The health risks of passive smoking are a matter of scientific consensus, and affects on the immune system of children. The combination of infectious disease and smoking can be lethal for children. Moreover, second smoke causes a small but measurable cancer risk to nonsmokers.

The passive smoking increases risk of respiratory conditions in children. The children who are exposed more to passive smoking are more vulnerable to different respiratory diseases than children who grow up in smoke-free homes.

The study found that in the world 40% of children, 33% of non-smoking men and 35% non-smoking women are sufferer to second hand smoke. It is estimated the passive smoking snatches lives of 379,000 from heart disease, 165,000 from lower respiratory infections, 36,900 from asthma and 21,400 from lung cancer.

According to the study, the highest number of people exposed to passive smoking are in the continents of Asia and Europe and the lowest rates of exposure are in the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa.