PREPARING WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2011 WITH RESPIRATORY DECADE

The next World No Tobacco Day will take place on Tuesday, 31 May 2011 and Respiratory Decade is starting to publish materials about smoking. Today we want to share with you 5 facts on second hand smoke and 5 tobacco free videos.

More than 6 million people die each year from tobacco use or exposure to tobacco.

63% of all deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases, for which tobacco use is the greatest risk factor, after high blood pressure.

1. Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces when people burn tobacco products such as cigarettes, bidis and water pipes. Everyone is exposed to its harmful effects.

2. Guidelines to Article 8 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control state that there is “no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke”. Creating 100% smoke-free environments is the only way to protect people from the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke.

3. Second-hand smoke causes 600 000 premature deaths per year. There are more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer.

4. In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.

5. Separate or ventilated smoking areas do not protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke can spread from a smoking area to a non-smoking area, even if the doors between the two areas are closed and even if ventilation is provided. Only 100% smoke-free environments provide effective protection.

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