THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for smoking bans worldwide, following a landmark California study that was the first to add breast cancer to a list of diseases caused by secondhand tobacco smoke.
At the ongoing 13th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Washington, WHO said the study, by California’s Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), would be the scientific basis for recommendations due in September.
“It contains the most updated research,” says Yumiko Mochizuki, director of WHO’s Tobacco-Free Initiative. The CalEPA report and the WHO policy will be published together, Mochizuki said.
WHO will push for regulations that will make 100% of the world’s workplaces and public spaces smoke-free. Only a few countries, including Ireland, have done so. Uganda, which banned smoking in public in March 2004, is still stuck over its implementation and vague definition of a public place.
According to The Tobacco Atlas 2006, about 15% of adults and 11% of the youth smoke. However, the percentage of those exposed to secondhand smoking doubles the above age groups.
The atlas says this actually predisposes more people other than the smokers to tobacco-related cancers. In 100,000 people, six will develop cancer every year due to smoking. Another six, both smokers and non-smokers, will develop liver cancer and 12 will develop cancer of the oesophagus.
Cancer, however, takes a greater toll on women, despite the fact that fewer of them smoke. About 22 in 100,000 will develop breast cancer, while 44 will develop cervical cancer.
Secondhand smoke also causes lung cancer, heart disease, adult asthma and premature birth.
