Secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking causes 603,000 deaths per year worldwide, of which 165,000 are children, Dr Annette Prüss-Ustün and team of the World Health Organization wrote in the medical journal The Lancet. The authors state that this is the first study to determine secondhand smoking's impact worldwide.
The last time comprehensive data on 192 countries was gathered was 2004, the year used for this analysis, the author explained. The death toll as well as life-years lost were calculated.
Below are some highlighted data from the study - globally in 2004:
• 40% of the world's children are exposed to secondhand smoke
• 33% of males who don't smoke are exposed to secondhand smoke
• 35% of females who don't smoke are exposed to secondhand smoke
• Secondhand smoke is thought to have caused 165,000 lower respiratory infection deaths, 379,000 ischemic stroke deaths, 36,900 asthma deaths, and 21,400 lung cancer deaths.
• 603,000 premature deaths were caused by passive smoking, approximately 1% of all premature deaths
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