Secondhand tobacco smoke kills at least 3600 people a year in the UK, according to a new study, including the death of one pub or bar worker every week.
Konrad Jamrozik at Imperial College, London, UK, says exposure to secondhand smoke in all workplaces leads to the deaths of around 700 people a year.
He examined all deaths in 2002 from lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease and stroke in British people under the age of 65, and combined this data with data on exposure to smoking at home and work.
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The study is the first to calculate deaths as a result of secondhand smoke in bar staff, says Jamrozik. But it 鈥渋s a conservative estimate鈥� he told 快猫短视频. The findings, presented at a conference at the Royal College of Physicians in London on Monday, have led to renewed calls for a public smoking ban in the UK.
鈥淭he estimates look very much in line with what other studies have shown,鈥� says Robert West, director of tobacco studies at University College London. 鈥淭hey add more weight to what is now pretty much an overwhelming argument in favour of a public smoking ban.鈥�
Deborah Arnott, director of campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) UK agrees: 鈥淭hese are truly shocking figures. They show the urgent need for a new law to end smoking in the workplace.鈥�
Active and passive
Jamrozik鈥檚 mathematical analysis used an epidemiological model to combine several sets of data. Death figures came from the UK Office for National Statistics for 2002 and information on what proportion of the population are exposed to smoke at work and at home was provided by ASH.
For example, about 30 per cent of the UK population smokes, while 42 per cent of under 65s are exposed to secondhand smoke at home. Eleven per cent of under 65s are exposed to other people鈥檚 smoke in their workplace.
Combining this data with information on the relative risk of disease among, active smokers, passive smokers and non-smokers allowed Jamrozik to calculate estimates for the number of deaths caused by passive smoking.
People working in pubs and bars are especially at risk as they are exposed to three times the levels of smoke that a non-smoker living with a smoker experiences. As a result, these workers are almost twice as likely to die from related diseases than those exposed to smoke at home.
Factory fumes
Pro-smoking group Forest dispute the figures. 鈥淥nce again we are presented with estimates, calculations and 鈥榣ikely risk鈥�. Where is the hard evidence that passive smoking is killing people?鈥� says director Simon Clark.
But West says that even allowing for a margin of error in Jamrozik鈥檚 study, the figures are 鈥減retty horrific鈥�. He told 快猫短视频: 鈥淚f factories were putting out fumes that caused that level of death, they would be closed down.鈥�
He adds that the public smoking bans in Ireland and New York did not lead to 鈥渕ass insurrections鈥� as feared.
Carol Black, president of the RCP notes: 鈥淢aking these places smoke-free not only protects vulnerable staff and the public, it will also help over 300,000 people in Britain to stop smoking completely.鈥�