Nearly 80,000 people die in the 25-nation European Union (EU) each year as a result of passive smoking, according to a report published by health researchers known as the Smoke Free Partnership.
Around 72,000 people are killed every year by passive smoking at home and 7,000 in the workplace, the report said. Every year 325 workers in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs are killed by passive smoking.
Around 85 percent of smoke in a smoky room is so-called sidestream smoke, which is the smoke created between puffs taken on a cigarette.
PHOTO: AFP
The researchers said this smoke is more toxic than the smoke inhaled and exhaled by a smoker. This is because a cigarette that is being held in the hand or burning in an ashtray burns at a lower temperature, releasing a different combination of chemicals, some of which are more toxic than chemicals released when the cigarette is being smoked.
Since January 2004, Ireland, Norway, Italy, Malta, Sweden and Scotland have banned smoking in indoor public areas and workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
Several other countries, including England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Belgium, are working on similar plans.
In 2004, the EU's executive commission estimated that around 656,000 out of the 4.5 million deaths that occurred in the EU in 2000 could be attributed to direct use of tobacco.
The new report also gives evidence that smoking bans were highly popular with the public, and said claims that such bans would drive bars, clubs and restaurants out of business were untrue.
As an example, the report pointed to New York, where employment in bars, clubs and restaurants rose by 10,600 jobs in the year after the city began following the Smoke-Free Air Act in 2003. (AFP)
根據「無菸夥伴」健康研究員所公布的報告,歐盟二十五國每年就有將近八萬人因為二手菸喪命。
報告指出,每年約有七萬二千人因為家中的二手菸死亡,七千人因職場的二手菸喪命。每年也有三百二十五名餐廳、酒吧與俱樂部的員工因二手菸死亡。
煙霧遼繞的房間內,大約有85%的煙是所謂的「旁流煙」(sidestream smoke),也就是香菸在吞吐之間燃燒時產生的煙。
研究人員表示,這種煙比抽煙者吞吐出來的煙更毒。這是因為香菸被拿在手裡、或在煙灰缸上燃燒時溫度較低,會釋放出另一種化學合成物,有些成份還比吞雲吐霧時所釋放的化學物質更毒。
二○○四年一月起,愛爾蘭、挪威、義大利、馬爾他、瑞典與蘇格蘭已禁止在公共室內場所與職場抽菸,餐廳與酒吧也包括在內。
包括英格蘭、威爾斯、北愛爾蘭與比利時等其他國家也在進行相似計畫。
歐盟執行委員會在二○○四年估計,二○○○年歐盟國家四百五十萬死亡人數中,約有六十五萬六千人是肇因於直接吸菸。
這份新報告也提出證據,顯示大眾對於禁菸表示高度歡迎,並指出,這些禁令會逼得酒吧、俱樂部和餐廳關門的說法並非事實。
這份報告以紐約為例,指出二○○三年紐約開始實施菸害防制法後,酒吧、俱樂部與餐廳的就業人數在同一年增加了一萬零六百人。 (法新社/翻譯:賴美君)
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