Preventing adolescents' uptake of smoking.

摘要

Smoking is the principal preventable cause of ill health worldwide. It not only affects smokers themselves but is also extremely harmful to non-smokers who inhale environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). In non-smoking adults, ETS exposure causes lung and other cancers, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Perhaps less well known by the general public is the threat that ETS inhalation poses for infants and children; there are strong associations with children's asthma, lower respiratory tract infection, sudden infant death syndrome, middle ear infection and bacterial meningitis. Knowledge of the health risks of ETS exposure have led many countries, including the UK, to introduce laws that prohibit smoking in indoor public spaces like bars and pubs (smoke-free legislation).