HEADLINES

• Passive smoking 'kills 600,000' worldwide
• 'No evidence smoking ban has closed pubs'
• Cigarette started fatal Mold house fire which killed mum
• Cricketers' bid to stump out smoking
• Scotland: Cash award for anti-smoking youth project
• USA: Companies "conspired not to settle" with flight attendants sickened by secondhand cigarette smoke

• Passive smoking 'kills 600,000' worldwide

  The first global study into the effects of passive smoking has found it causes 600,000 deaths every year.

  One-third of those killed (165,000) are children, often exposed to smoke at home, the World Health Organization (WHO) found.

  The study, in 192 countries, found that passive smoking is particularly dangerous for children, said to be at higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, pneumonia and asthma.

  Worldwide, 40% of children, 33% of non-smoking men and 35% non-smoking women were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2004, researchers found.

  This exposure was estimated to have caused 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 from lower respiratory infections, 36,900 from asthma and 21,400 from lung cancer.

  According to the study, the highest numbers of people exposed to second-hand smoke are in Europe and Asia and the lowest rates of exposure were in the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa.

  The research also revealed that passive smoking had a large impact on women, killing about 281,000 worldwide.

  More coverage on this story:

  - Worldwide burden of disease from exposure to second-hand smoke: a retrospective analysis of data from 192 countries - The Lancet

  - FACTBOX-Tobacco: One of the world's biggest health threats - Reuters

  - Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 a year - WHO study - Reuters

  - 165,000 children killed by second-hand smoke: WHO study - Ireland Online

  - Passive smoking 'kills 600,000' - Irish Times

  - Passive smoking kills 600,000 a year, including 165,000 children, says WHO - The Guardian

  - Passive smoking 'causes 1 per cent of all world's deaths' - The Independent

  - Passive smoking 'causes one in 100 deaths worldwide' - Daily Mail

  Source: BBC News - 26 November 2010
  Link: http://bbc.in/hqsA1L

• 'No evidence smoking ban has closed pubs'

  Health minister Anne Milton reiterated in a letter to the Save the Pub Group that there would be no review of the Smokefree legislation.

  "I should perhaps reiterate that there is little, if any, evidence that would link the closure of pubs and clubs to the introduction of this law," said Milton.

  "If anything the evidence points in the opposite direction. Some opponents of this law have suggested (both before and after the implementation of the smokefree law) that amongst other things the law would result in pub closures.

  "However, there has been a continuous decline in the number of traditional pubs and clubs for over a generation."

  Milton pointed to an increase in the number of premises licensed to sell alcohol as proof and the fact that a changing consumer needs had seen pubs turned into restaurants and a demand for more coffee shops.

  Source: Morning Advertiser - 25 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/eBnNd3

• Cigarette started fatal Mold house fire which killed mum

  A mum was found dead by fire crews after a discarded cigarette sparked a blaze at her Mold home.

  Wendy Tranter, 54, was found upstairs in her home on Llys Derwen by North Wales Fire and Rescue Service crews at about 3.30pm on Thursday.

  Source: The Flintshire Chronicle - 25 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/f752jS

• Cricketers' bid to stump out smoking

  Cricketers and health professionals are hoping to bowl folk over in a joint campaign to stump out smoking.

  NHS Rotherham and the Rotherham Indoor Cricket League have come together to promote the benefits of being smoke-free.

  Members of the league will compete wearing Smokefree Rotherham-branded kit and give out information about the risks of smoking and how to quit. 

  Source: Rotherham Advertiser - 25 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/iiTrw1

• Scotland: Cash award for anti-smoking youth project

  A Musselbourgh-based youth project has been awarded a share of £1,500 prize money after staging a successful anti-smoking project.

  The Bridges Project is one of two youth schemes that have earned a Crofton Award from the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS), in partnership with ASH Scotland, in recognition of their achievements in reducing tobacco and smoking-related harm in Scotland.

  Source: East Lothian Courier - 25 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/eA7u0w

• USA: Companies "conspired not to settle" with flight attendants sickened by secondhand cigarette smoke

  Attorneys for flight attendants who allege secondhand smoke aboard commercial aircraft made them sick want a Miami-Dade judge to hit tobacco companies with $30 million in sanctions for crafting an agreement they say violates Florida's good faith laws.

  The allegations stem from cases of nearly 3,000 flight attendants — all members of a former class action — who pursued individual claims against the tobacco companies for more than a decade.

  Each airline employee sued several cigarette makers but it was only one, Lorillard Tobacco, whose decision to decline a proposed settlement in 2000 is now at issue.

  The company was on the verge of accepting a $10 million settlement that would have ended its role in the case. But fellow defendant companies talked Lorillard into abandoning the settlement, according to a motion filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last Thursday by three plaintiff attorneys.

  Steven Hunter, Roy Wasson and Marvin Weinstein say the tobacco companies acted in bad faith when they interfered in the settlement.

  Source: Law.com - 23 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/dOTOgR