Smoke-free homes: The final frontier

Abstract

Over 1.2 billion tobacco users worldwide and almost 8 million tobacco-related deaths make tobacco control a public health high priority 1 . While the number of smokers has fallen in high-income countries (HICs) in recent years, the number of tobacco users in many low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) has steadily increased 2 . In addition to active smoking, inhalation of secondhand smoke (SHS) is a major cause of premature death and disease, especially among women and children More than one-third of women 5 and half of the children 6 are exposed to SHS worldwide. The exposure to SHS during pregnancy is also high in many countries; the prevalence ranging from 6% in Nigeria to 73% in Armenia 7 .

Topics & Concepts