Scientists at the University of Aberdeen performed a meta-analysis of 4 studies examining the concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5, with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers) in homes. They compared the rate of “smoking” homes to “non-smoking” homes. They studied 93 houses with tobacco and 17 houses without nicotine.
The average concentration of PM2.5 in homes where smokers lived was about ten times that measured in homes without smokers. Thus forcing non-smokers to breathe fine particles.
” Several non smokers who live with a smoker breathe as much PM2.5 as non-smokers who live and work in smoke-free environments in cities as polluted as London and Beijing “explains Dr Sean Semple, Senior Lecturer in the Respiratory Department of the University of Aberdeen co-author of the study. “And this exposure to PM2.5 of non-smokers who lived with a smoker was more than three times the annual limit suggested by the World Health Organization ”.
The researchers measured that in a quarter of the homes with smokers the concentrations of PM2.5 were more than 11 times higher than the annual limit recommended by the WHO.
Alarming figures
To highlight the harmful effects of passive smoking, the WHO publishes alarming figures: passive smoking is responsible for more than 600,000 deaths per year in the world, that is to say one in 100 deaths. And if we only take into account that of deaths caused by tobacco, passive smoking is responsible for one in 10 deaths. Exposure to second-hand smoke is responsible each year for 379,000 deaths from ischemic heart disease, 165,000 deaths caused by respiratory infections, 36,900 deaths linked to asthma cases and 21,400 lung cancer deaths.
Passive smoking is also thought to increase the risk of developing a disease by 10%. breast cancer, according to the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
