Julie Morgan, Cardiff North MP, who is attempting to get a Private Member's Bill through Parliament to ban smoking in public places in Wales, said, 'I feel very strongly that these figures show the absolute danger of
passive smoking and I don't think anyone can now argue against that.
The researchers analyzed frozen blood samples collected in 1974 from 1,590 residents of Washington County, Maryland, as well as a smoking survey of the same residents conducted in 1975, and compared exposures to
passive smoking at home with micronutrient levels in the subjects' blood samples.
Michael Nye, who runs the North-East branch of the Roy Castle Foundation, said: "Cigarettes and alcohol go hand in hand but few smokers realise the risk
passive smoking can cause.
Before this study, it was known that
passive smoking caused increased risk for several ailments, including asthma and bronchitis, as well as middle-ear infections in young children.
In response to a study published in international journal Tobacco Control on the dangers of smoking in cars in the presence of children -- even with open windows -- they said that the dangers of
passive smoking apply to homes as well public places.
The new study headed by experts at the Behaviour Evaluation and Measurement Research Centre (CRAMC) of the Rovira i Virgili University goes further and analyses the effects of
passive smoking during pregnancy on the newborn.
PASSIVE smoking could make teenagers go deaf, a new study has revealed.
50 per cent of people frequenting medical establishments were exposed to
passive smoking.
A ban on smoking in the car with children would prevent some of the 22,000 new cases each year of asthma, caused as a direct result of
passive smoking," she said.
PASSIVE smoking claims over six lakh lives each year the world over.
Summary: Doctors have called for a ban on smoking in all vehicles after a report into the effects of
passive smoking on children.
The report said
passive smoking results in more than 300,000 GP consultations for children, some 9,500 hospital admissions and costs the NHS about pounds 23.
