Tobacco Documents Online

1 , ® Patron The Rt. Hon. the Lord Chalfont AnSR PC, OBE. MC. Melgund Centre, Melgund Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 4BU 031•557 3139 EMBARGOED UNTIL 11 am. Tuesday. 5.Tanuary 1993 NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE 10,600 BRITONS DIE DUE TO TOBACCO-SMOKE POLLUTION About 10,600 adult Britons die each year because of second-hand smoking, says a_ book published in Britain today. These fatalities consist of 700 lung cancer deaths, 2,500 deaths from cancers other than cancer of the lung and 7,400 heart-disease deaths, according to the report. Around 139,000 adults die every year across Europe because of other people's tobacco-smoking habit even though the victims do not smoke themselves. Of these 139,000 deaths about 9,355 die of lung cancer, 33,290 die of other cancers brought on by second-hand smoking, and 96,500 succumb to heart disease caused by this exposure. The report also gives estimates for such "passive" smoking deaths nation by nation across Europe. [See accompanying table.] - "These figures do not include the deaths of unborn children, newborn babies, or young infant deaths caused by their parents' smoking, so the death-toll is even more appalling than the adult totals," says Phillip Whidden, the author of the book, Tobacco-smoke Pollution. It is the largest and most comprehensive survey of the scientific evidence on second-hand smoking ever produced in Europe and focuses especially on evidence from European scientists. Mr Whidden is the publications editor for the British pressure group, the Association for Nonsmokers' Rights (ANSR). The figures are based on the assumption that methods of assessing second-hand smoking deaths in the United States, like the method used by scientists in producing such estimates for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, can be applied to other similar western, industrialized parts of the world like Europe. The book pays special attentlion to heart-disease deaths caused by second-hand smoking and to smoking in the workplace and smoking around children. [See accompanying chart.] However, it notes that second-hand smoking is now linked with an increased incidence or worsening of over 130 conditions and diseases. [See accompanying poster-style list.] The report concludes by quoting from a concise review of the evidence on second-hand smoking published in a major medical journal in late 1992: "The scientific case against environmental tobacco smoke is now overwhelming." The book also makes vigorous recommendations based on the medical evidence, for example: * replace the warnings on tobacco advertising and tobacco products about the harm suffered by smokers with warnings about what smoking is doing to nonsmokers; more 2501344271 A A, n RnAak iin and cavA vni ir hraath

2 * outlaw all smoking of tobacco indoors which could in any way adversely affect people other than the active smoker himself or herself; * focus all health education about second-hand smoking on nonsmokers instead of on smokers; * enforce all laws, regulations, policies and rules controlling tobacco-smoke pollution. "Tobacco-smoke pollution is the most important environmental pollution suffered by nonsmokers and is `the greatest known mass carcinogen in history,' " says the report. "The major source of indoor air pollution is tobacco smoke. Where smoking is permitted in enclosed spaces, tobacco smoke makes up 80%-90% of the pollution. Since nonsmokers are the majority - not least because young children are overwhelmingly nonsmokers - and since nonsmokers spend far and away the greatest portion of their time in indoor environments, tobacco-smoke pollution is the single most serious environmental threat to humans wherever smoking is allowed indoors. Therefore, 'passive' smoking is the touchstone 'green' issue for our times: if we cannot find the will to eliminate forced exposure of our own species to tobacco-smoke pollution, then it seems highly unlikely that we will succeed in "taking the steps to protect other species from depredation of their environments, much less in dealing with the multifarious adverse environmental factors which add up to world- wide global threat." Charles E Rossiter, Emeritus Professor of Occupational Health, University of London, says, "Now the tobacco smoking habit has been proven harmful to nonsmokers, and the greater harm affects the least privileged: the youngest and the respiratory disabled. This book can be used by anyone to uphold the basic human right to an unharmed environment." Mr Whidden is also the Chief Editor for the European Union of Nonsmokers, based in Strasbourg. ANSR is the only national-level organization in the world focusing solely on nonsmokers' rights. Tobacco-smoke Pollution costs £5 and is available only from ANSR. It comes complete with over 650 references to the scientific reports cited in the study. Complimentary copies for representatives of the media will be available at the official media launch of the book. - Ends - For further information: contact Phillip Whidden at 031 557 3139 (if you are ringing before the afternoon of 2 January) or at (0344) 424 935 if you are ringing during the evening of 4 January. INVITATION TO NEWS/PICTURE EDITORS: The book will be launched at a media briefing: Time: `~ Coffee, 10.30 am; Place: Lecture Room press confFrence, 1 I am Royal College of Physicians 11 St Andrew's Place Regent's Park London NW 1 On 4 and 5 January media representatives are also invited to contact Mrs Audrey Ogilvie, Secretary of the Tobacco Hazards and Risks Educational Advisory Trust (THREAT), the major financial donor for the publication of the book. She can be reached during working hours at 031 555 5011, and at Dalgety Bay (0383) 822 343 in the evenings. Mrs Ogilvie will be focusing particularly on the effects of second-hand smoking on asthmatics. 2501344272