One of the most important things you can do to prevent disease and preserve your own health and that of your senior loved one, is to avoid smoking AND avoid second-hand smoke.
According to an article in NY Daily News, a new study has found that second-hand smoke globally kills more than 600,000 people each year, accounting for 1% of all deaths worldwide. These alarming findings – published on Thursday in the British medical journal Lancet – were based on a survey of 192 countries in 2004.
Researchers estimated that second-hand smoke causes about 379,000 deaths per year from heart disease, 165,000 deaths per year from lower respiratory disease, 36,900 deaths per year from asthma and 21,400 deaths per year from lung cancer.
About 165,000 of the deaths per year are children, according to the researchers.
“This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco,” said Armando Peruga, of the World Health Organization, who led the study. He said the estimated 603,000 deaths from passive smoking should be added to the 5.1 million that smoking claims annually.The study found that 40% of children and 30% adults regularly breathe in second-hand smoke.
Read more » Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 people a year: Study.
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