Ten die each week from passive smoking

TEN people die every week in Ireland from the effects of passive smoking according to the first-ever European study to be released today.

But a health expert has warned that the ban on smoking in public places, such as pubs and restaurants, will not directly affect these numbers as most passive smoking happens in people's homes.

The figures show that for every eight smokers in Europe that die from tobacco-related illness, one adult is killed by the smoke that pollutes their air.

In Ireland 566 people died from passive smoking in 2004 the year the ban was introduced. The majority, 294, died from heart conditions; 145 from stroke; 76 from lung cancer and 51 from chronic respiratory ailments. But only 31 of these deaths were due to exposure at work while 539 were attributed to people being exposed to smoke at home.

Professor Konrad Jamrozik, from the University of Queensland in Australia, who carried out the research said: "The risks from inhaling second-hand tobacco smoke are irrefutable after 20 years of accumulated medical evidence."

Prof Jamrozik said surveys show people are exposed to much more passive smoking in their homes than in the workplace. But this was not an argument against a smoking ban at work.

"When public areas become smoke-free a larger number of people adopt some form of smoking control in their private lives too," he explained.

Sudden Infant Death syndrome is the leading cause of death among babies between the ages of one month and one year and is associated with passive smoking, he said.

Passive smoke affects both smokers and non-smokers at home and in the workplace. Side-stream smoke created between puffs is even more toxic than smoke exhaled by a smoker and makes up 85% of room smoke.

According to the report this is because a cigarette held in the hand or smouldering in an ashtray burns at a lower temperature releasing a different combination of chemicals.

Smoke from cigarettes contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including many air pollutants and hazardous wastes. More than 50 of these chemicals are carcinogenic and more than 100 are chemical poisons.

Medical evidence shows that both smokers and non-smokers are vulnerable to passive smoke. The experts say smokers have a 60% risk of illness from their own smoking and 40% from passive smoking.