Action on Smoking and Health A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions    Info About ASH  | ash.org |  To Join ASH

To read the entire report,  click here

Excerpts from Passive smoking damaging half the world's children: WHO

AFP [06/16/99]

Passive smoking is damaging the health of almost half the world's children, the World Health Organisation warned Wednesday as it pushes support for a global treaty on tobacco control.

An estimated 700 million children are exposed to the effects of tobacco by the 1.2 billion adults who smoke, according to a WHO consultation report to a conference on health and the environment in London.

Studies had shown that smoke significantly damaged the health of children, it added, increasing the likelihood of them contracting respiratory ailments such as bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma.

Cot death was also associated with passive smoking. Infants of mothers who smoked were five times more likely to die than babies of non-smokers.

There was also some evidence that passive smoking in children affected the development of the brain and accelerated the onset of heart disease.

The report was unveiled on the opening day of a three-day conference here organised by the WHO and grouping the health and environment ministers of 51 European nations.

It said the impact of passive smoking on so many children "constitutes a substantial public health threat."

Evidence of the harm it caused was "consistent and robust."

"Even if certain questions still require further research, there is more than sufficient evidence of harm to demand action to reduce children's involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke."

WHO director general Gro Harlem-Brundtland, who has pushed the war against smoking and tobacco to the forefront of the WHO agenda, said it was important to get a legally binding framework and slow down the "epidemic" of illness.

She said a meeting three weeks ago in Geneva of the World Health Assembly produced strong support for a convention on tobacco control, but it depended on what the 191 UN members agreed should be included in a treaty.

Talks were under way on a deal which could lead to higher taxes, curbs on advertising and global action to stop children taking up the habit, she said. It is hoped agreement can be achieved by 2002.

To read the entire report,  click here

click here to return to ASH's Home Web Page: http://ash.org
click here for more information about Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
click here to learn the many benefits of joining ASH on-line, over the Internet