600 000 Passive Smokers Die in Each Year

Approximately one out of 100 causes of death in the world caused by passive smoking, which killed an estimated 600,000 people per year, according to the findings of the researchers the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday.

In the first study to assess the effect of passive smoking, the WHO experts found the children are more exposed to cigarette smoke of others than any other age group, and consequently approximately 165,000 of them will die.

"Two thirds of these deaths occur in Africa and south Asia," say the researchers, led by Annette Pruss-Ustun of WHO in Geneva, who wrote his findings.

Exposure of children to secondhand smoke often occur at home, and infectious diseases and tobacco is a deadly combination for children, they said.

Commenting on the findings, written in the journal Lancet, Heather Wipfli, and Jonathan Samet of the University of Southern California, said many policy makers try to motivate families to stop smoking in the house.

"In some countries, a lot of smoke-free home but still far from common," they write.

WHO scientists using data from 192 countries for their research. In order to get comprehensive data from around 192 countries, they should return in 2004.

They use a mathematical example to estimate mortality and duration of death in good health.

Globally, 40 percent of children, 33 percent of male non-smokers and 35 percent of women non-smokers exposed to passive smoking in 2004, according to their findings.

The results of this exposure is estimated to cause 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 lower respiratory infections, 36,900 from asthma and 21,400 from lung cancer.

For the full effect of smoking, these deaths could increase from an estimated 5.1 million deaths per year of active users of tobacco, said the group's researchers.

Children

Although the mortality of children is common in poor countries and middle, mortality in adults spread across the country with different income levels.

High-income countries such as Europe, only 71 children who died, while 35,388 deaths occur in adults. In Africa, an estimated 43,375 child deaths than 9514 deaths in adults.

Pruss-Ustun urged many countries to strengthen the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control belongs to the WHO, such as raising tobacco taxes, create a plain cigarette packets and bans on tobacco advertising.

"Policy makers should be aware that enforce tobacco-free law is likely to greatly reduce mortality caused from exposure to passive smoking in the first year of implementation, accompanied by a reduction in illness in health and social system," he wrote.

Only 7.4 percent of world population who live in smoke-free laws shade, and the law is not always enforced.

Places that have enacted smoke-free legislation, the study showed that exposure to passive smoking in high-risk places such as bars and restaurants can be cut by 90 percent, and generally up to 60 percent, the researchers said.

The study also showed regulation helps reduce the number of cigarettes that were burned by a smoker and produces a high success rate in people who want to quit smoking.

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