Passive smoking (PS), also called second-hand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is inhaling of tobacco smoke by persons who are in the vicinity of an actual or active smoker. It has been found that the exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke can cause diseases, disabilities and other health problems.
Because of the serious health risks due to passive smoking, in many countries, including India, smoke-free laws have been enforced AT workplaces and indoor public places including offices, institutions, hospitals, restaurants, buses, trains, airplanes, bars and clubs as well as some open spaces.
Concerns and research around second-hand smoke have played a central role in informing people and law-makers that cigarette smoking and its second hand smoke or passive smoking and dangerous for health. Yet another danger of second hand smoke exposure is faced by women reveals a study.
According to a study conducted at the Wilmot Cancer Center in US, the women exposed to second hand smoke are 68 per cent more likely to face fertility problems and can also suffer miscarriage.
The sample of the study consisted of 4,800 non-smoking women but exposed to second hand smoke, the four out of five women reported exposure to second hand smoke during their lifetime. Half of them grew up in a home with smoking parents and nearly two-thirds of them were exposed to some second hand smoking at the time of the survey.
The researchers found that those who were exposed to second hand smoke six or more hours per day as children and adults were at a greater risk of having difficulty in getting pregnant and suffering one or more miscarriages. The risk could be much higher in the case of active female smokers, one can speculate.
World Health Organisation (WHO), that has established 'World No Tobbaco day' to be observed on May 31 each year, under its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) have urged the member states to fulfill their legal obligation to implement effective legislation "for protection from exposure to tobacco smoke in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and, as appropriate, other public places."
Article 8 of the FCTC provides Guidelines on the Protection from Exposure to Second-hand Smoke, which states that the effective measures to provide protection from exposure to tobacco smoke require the total elimination of smoking and tobacco smoke in a particular space or environment in order to create a 100 per cent smoke-free environment.
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