ALMOST one thousand Scots die every year from other people's tobacco
smoke, according to a report published yesterday by an Edinburgh based
anti-smoking pressure group.
Most of the deaths from passive smoking are caused by heart disease,
which accounts for 664 deaths. Lung cancer accounts for 64, while the
figure for related cancers is 228, the report claims.
The pressure group, the Association for Non Smokers Rights, said that
Glasgow, with a population of 689,000, could expect 90 deaths from heart
disease, 31 deaths from other cancers, and nine lung cancer deaths in
one year from passive smoking.
The author of the report, Mr Phillip Whidden, said: ''These figures do
not include the deaths of unborn children, newborn babies, or young
infant deaths caused by their parents' smoking, so the death toll is
even more appalling than the adult totals.''
The research, published under the title Tobacco-smoke Pollution, says
children with parents who smoke are at greater risk of pneumonia,
bronchitis, and the early development of asthma. Inhaling other people's
smoke ''raises the risk of lung cancer in adults and children by between
10 and 30%''.
The report says that in Britain the total number of deaths from
passive smoking is 10,600, of which 7400 are caused by heart disease and
3200 from tumours and various cancers of the lung. Up to a further 9000
children and unborn children are estimated to die every year from
tobacco smoke. In comparison, 610 deaths are caused each year in
drink-driving accidents.
Across Europe, 139,000 adults die every year because of other people
smoking: 15,000 in Germany and 11,000 in Italy.
The research, which uses methods developed by the US Environmental
Protection Agency, is the largest and most widespread study yet
undertaken on the effects of passive smoking in Europe.
It also shows pollution from tobacco smoke is 1500 times more likely
to cause fatal diseases in non-smoking office workers than asbestos.
The Government's Health of the Nation White Paper, meanwhile, aims to
combat the effects of tobacco smoking on smokers and non-smokers by
reducing the consumption of cigarettes by at least 40% by the year 2000.
Other Government targets include reducing the proportion of adult
smokers to 20% by 2000, cutting smoking among 11 to 15 year olds by at
least 33% by 1994, and persuading at least a third of women smokers to
give up at the start of their pregnancies by 2000.
The project co-ordinator for Glasgow 2000, Doreen McIntyre, said
yesterday she was not surprised at the level of deaths from passive
smoking recorded in Glasgow.
She said: ''The effects of passive smoking are not well enough known
by the majority of the non-smoking public in Glasgow.''
Glasgow 2000 would continue its campaign to eliminate smoking in
public places, she added.
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