More than 2.7 billion people worldwide, including children, were exposed to secondhand smoke, causing around 1.7 million deaths in 2023, according to a study published Tuesday in the specialized journal The Lancet.
اضافة اعلان
Tobacco remains a leading cause of disease worldwide, according to the study, which noted that many of the "non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke" were among the estimated 8 million people total who died in 2023 from smoking-related diseases.
The study added that "exposure to secondhand smoke is a globally recognized health risk, as there is no safe level of exposure to it," according to Agence France-Presse.
The study, published Tuesday, sought to estimate rates of secondhand smoke exposure and determine the scale of the resulting disease burden across 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2023, by reviewing studies listed in the PubMed database run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, alongside population surveys.
The study found that among the roughly 2.7 billion people exposed to secondhand smoke in 2023, 767 million were children between the ages of 0 and 14.
Estimates indicate this exposure led to 1.66 million premature deaths, in addition to causing disability and early ill health, topped by ischemic heart disease, a heart condition caused by an insufficient oxygen supply to the heart muscle.
The study said secondhand smoke exposure caused 5.2 million cases of respiratory infection among children in 2023.
The study explained that people near someone smoking are exposed to both the "side stream smoke" released from the burning tobacco product and the smoke exhaled by the smoker.
It went on to note that "side stream smoke, which makes up the bulk of the air non-smokers breathe, is unfiltered and contains higher concentrations (per unit) of toxic and carcinogenic compounds" compared to the smoke inhaled by the smoker.
Despite a notable decline in global smoking prevalence rates since 1990, the absolute number of people exposed to smoke has remained steady, due to population growth and rising exposure rates in Africa and the Middle East.
Source: Al-Ghad.
