| Non-smokers who are exposed to passive smoking in the home have 25 percent increased risk of heart disease and lung cancer. Passive smoking in the home causes 10,700 deaths a year in the UK alone.
Side- stream smoke contains tar nicotine, benzene and Pyrene. These dangerous toxins are present in higher concentrations in side-stream smoke than in main-stream smoke. Nearly 80 percent of the smoke in a room results from side-stream smoke.
Parents who have infants at home must refrain from smoking inside the home. More than 17,000 children below the age of 5 years are admitted in the hospital every year for bronchitis and pneumonia, the two major diseases, children suffer due to passive smoking.
It would be ideal if all the countries become signatories to the WHO’s FCTC (Framework on Convention on Tobacco Control). It ensures that smoking in public is banned; There is a total ban on tobacco advertising and steep increase in taxes of tobacco products.
Apart from these disincentives, incentives can be offered by companies to its non-smoking employees as the companies benefit by way of less absenteeism due to illness and more productive time.
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