The World Health Organization has issued a stern warning to all the countries in the world to band smoking at public places. Smoking is the root cause of many ills.
According to WHO, use of tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death, accounting for 10 percent of adult fatalities. It kills 5.4 million people around the globe each year. The figure is expected to rise to 8.3 million by 2030, the agency fears.
The evidence is clear. There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke,
said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization.
Smoking not only affects the smoker or the chain-smokers but also have a long term bearing on the non-smokers who have to suffer for no fault of theirs. The 50 page report mentioned that increasing numbers of nonsmokers would also die unless governments take action. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 3,000 deaths from lung cancer each year occur among nonsmoking Americans. It said governments of both prosperous and poor countries should declare all public indoor places smoking-free, by passing laws and strictly enforcing measures to ensure that ‘everyone has a right to breathe clean air, free from tobacco smoke.’
Around 200,000 of the workforce die each year because of exposure to smoke at their offices and factories, according to the U.N. labor agency.
This is not about shaming the smoker. This is not even about banning smoking. “This is about society taking decisions about where to smoke and where not to smoke,
said Dr. Armando Peruga, who heads WHO’s anti-tobacco campaign.
Ireland and Uruguay are the two governments that have performed outstandingly in tackling smoking by creating and enforcing smoke-free environments. Laws of such kind have proved popular among both smokers and non smokers, according to WHO. The WHO’s policy recommendations set broad goals for its 193 member states, but are not currently legally binding.
Around 700 million of the world’s children are exposed to air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home, says WHO. The agency’s recommendations come in the wake of new reports presented by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the U.S. surgeon general and the California Environmental Protection Agency.
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Via:Firstcoastnews