Smoke-free public places

Breathing someone else's tobacco smoke has damaging effects on both immediate and long-term health, including raising the risk of coronary heart disease. In 2004, the UK Government-appointed Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) appraised all available evidence and concluded that second hand smoke increases the risk of ischaemic heart disease by about 25%.[1]

Exposure to even small amounts of second hand smoke has a large effect on CHD risk and further exposure has only a limited additional effect. The scale of the risk associated with secondhand smoke is around half that of smoking 20 cigarettes a day, even though the exposure is only about 1% that of active smoking.[2]

Precisely how second hand smoke causes CHD is unknown. However, even light exposure can increase blood platelet activity, causing the blood to thicken and become more likely to clot.

Recent research has shown that exposure to even half an hour of second hand smoke by non-smokers is enough to damage the lining of the coronary arteries and cause them to constrict, reducing blood flow to the heart.

Breathing other people's smoke could increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to US research published in the British Medical Journal [3] in April 2006. Researchers examined 4,572 men and women in four US cities. Tests were then carried out on the participants after 15 years to see if they had developed insulin resistance. Smokers had the highest risk, with 22% of them developing insulin resistance. Non-smokers, who had no exposure to second-hand smoke had the lowest risk, with less than 12% developing the condition. However, the risk for people who had never smoked but were regularly in smoky atmospheres, was even greater than for those who had previously smoked but had given up.

Britain enjoys smoke-free environments

On 1 July 2007, the smoke-free provisions of the Health Act 2006 came into force in England. This means that it is illegal to smoke in virtually all English workplaces and enclosed public places. It is the last of the regulations to be enacted in the UK, following equivalent bans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It makes the UK the biggest jurisdiction (by population) to have legally enforced protection from second-hand smoke. Virtually all workplaces are smoke-free, which means that all employees in offices, shops, factories, restaurants or pubs are able to work in a clean, smoke-free environment.

For detailed information about the regulations, exemptions and enforcement visit the Smoke Free Coalition website.

The ban on smoking in enclosed public places is a tremendous victory for public health. We owe a great deal to the tireless advocacy efforts of tobacco control organisation, civil servants, and members of parliament to secure such a significant milestone in public health protection.

Secondhand smoking in the home

The health impact of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke is well established and has resulted in governments around the world introducing legislation to ban smoking in the workplace and public places. However, measures to reduce secondhand smoke exposure in the home have received little attention, despite the fact that for many people, and for children in particular, this is the location where most exposure takes place. In April 2006, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) published a factsheet on secondhand smoking in the home.

Key facts from ASH:

Children's exposure to secondhand smoke is most likely to take place in the home.
There is no published, peer-reviewed evidence to show that smokefree laws lead to an increase in smoking in the home.
Where smoke-free workplaces and public places are the norm, parents are more likely to also make their own home a tobacco-free zone.
Banning smoking in the home is the only reliable way of reducing exposure to secondhand smoke as partial restrictions are not effective.

Visit Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) website

References

Secondhand smoke: review of evidence since 1998: update of evidence on health effects of secondhand smoke. London: Department of Health, 2004.
Law MR, Morris JK and Wald NJ. Environmental tobacco smoke exposure and ischaemic heart disease: an evaluation of the evidence. BMJ 1997; 315: 973-80.
Thomas K Houston , Thomas K Houston, Sharina D Person, Mark J Pletcher , Kiang Liu, Carlos Iribarren, Catarina I Kiefe. Active and passive smoking and development of glucose intolerance among young adults in a prospective cohort: CARDIA study. Journal reference: British Medical Journal (DOI: 10.1136/bmj.38779.584028.55), 07 April 2006