Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death globally, causing more than five million deaths a year. Tobacco use continues to expand most rapidly in the developing world, where currently half of tobacco-related deaths occur.
By 2030, if current trends continue, 8 out of every 10 tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) signalled the urgent need for countries to make all indoor public places and workplaces 100% smoke-free with the release of its new policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke in advance of World No Tobacco Day (31 May), which focuses this year on this theme.
“The evidence is clear, there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke,” said the WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. “Many countries have already taken action. I urge all countries that have not yet done so to take this immediate and important step to protect the health of all by passing laws requiring all indoor workplaces and public places to be 100% smoke-free.”
There are about 4000 known chemicals in tobacco smoke; more than 50 of them are known to cause cancer. Exposure to second-hand smoke causes heart disease and many serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that can lead to premature death in adults. It also causes diseases and worsens existing conditions, such as asthma, in children.
The new WHO policy recommendations are based on the evidence of three recent major reports, which all reached the same conclusion: Monograph 83 Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the United States Surgeon General’s Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke and the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant.