Tobacco industry cops it from the WHO

May 31 2007

The tobacco industry has been severely criticised by the World Health Organization (WHO) for misleading the public on the dangers of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

The WHO says the tobacco industry has repeatedly 'misled and misinformed' the public about the health risks and dangers of second-hand tobacco smoke and about the economic impact of smoking bans.

WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan says there is clear evidence that there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

Dr. Chan is urging all countries that have not yet done so to take the immediate and important steps to protect the health of all by passing laws making all indoor workplaces and public places 100% smoke-free.

The tobacco industry stands accused of promoting untruths about smoking in public places in an attempt to counter an increasing number of smoking bans around the world.

Shigeru Omi, director of the WHO's Western Pacific regional office, says everyone knows that smoking kills, but what is less well known is that hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die each year from diseases caused by breathing smoke from other people's cigarettes, and the simple solution is 100 per cent smoke-free environments.

Omi says less simple is overcoming the tobacco industry's lies about smoke-free policies.

The WHO says its demands are backed by solid scientific evidence from three recent major reports regarding the dangers of smoking:-

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.

There are known to be as many as 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke and more than 50 of them 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, middle-ear infections and sudden infant death syndrome in children.

'Smoke-Free Environments' is the theme of World No Tobacco Day, and world leaders are being urged to protect people from second-hand tobacco smoke by passing and enforcing laws requiring smoking bans in all indoor and public places.

The WHO says research has also shown that 100 per cent smoke-free environments are good for business, cost little and prevent people from taking up smoking, but despite this evidence, the tobacco industry continues to perpetuate myths that ventilation systems can protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke exposure, that smoke-free policies hurt business or that smoking bans infringe on a smoker's rights and freedom of choice.

In order to mark this year's World No Tobacco Day, the WHO is honouring individuals and organizations that have helped create smoke-free environments through policies and research.

Exposure to second-hand smoke occurs anywhere smoking is permitted, in homes, workplaces and other public places and the WHO says an estimated 200,000 workers die each year due to exposure to smoke at work.

The WHO estimates that around 700 million children, or almost half of the world's children, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home.

Exposure to second-hand smoke also imposes economic costs on individuals, businesses and society as a whole and workplaces where smoking is permitted incur higher renovation and cleaning costs, and increased risk of fire, and may experience higher insurance premiums.

Tobacco use causes more than five million deaths a year and is the leading preventable cause of death globally.

Tobacco use continues to expand most rapidly in the developing world, where currently half of tobacco-related deaths occur and experts say by 2030, if current trends continue, 8 out of every 10 tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.