600,000 killed by passive smoking worldwide
A global study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found that passive smoking causes around 600,000 deaths each year with one third of that number being children, reports BBC News.
The study, which was conducted in 192 countries found that passive smoking was particularly dangerous for children, causing 165,000 fatal smoking related respiratory infections, mostly in South East Asia and in Africa.
Children are also the group which stand the highest risk of being exposed to passive smoking in their own homes which according to the study, may well lead to them developing at a slower pace than children growing up in smoke free homes.
Overall the study found that as many as 40 per cent of children, 33 per cent of non smoking men and 35 per cent of non-smoking women were exposed to second hand smoke.
Exposure at these levels was estimated to have caused 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 from lower respiratory infections, 36,900 from asthma and 21,400 from lung cancer.
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