[A proposal to explore the views and opinions of adults regarding passive smoking]

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Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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Abstract

In 2003, over 11,000 people in the UK are estimated to have died as a result of passive smoking. Although regarded for many years as little more than a nuisance, exposure to ambient tobacco smoke released directly by burning tobacco and indirectly by exhalation of smoke by smokers (also variously referred to as environmental tobacco smoke, second-hand smoke, or tobacco smoke pollution) is now a recognised cause of significant short- and long-term harm to others. Many of those adverse health effects were summarised, particularly in relation to adult exposure, in an earlier Royal College of Physicians report. Increasing awareness of these health risks has led the UK and several other countries to introduce legislation restricting or prohibiting smoking in enclosed public places. This legislation has typically been justified by the legal and moral obligation to ensure safe working environments and, in the UK, to prevent the 600 or so deaths previously estimated to be caused each year by passive smoking at work. However, these are the minority of deaths caused by passive smoking, the bulk of which (an estimated 10,700 deaths in adults in 2003) arise from exposure to tobacco smoke in the home. Passive smoking in the home is also a major hazard to the health of the millions of children in the UK who live with smokers, and the extent of this health problem has not, to date, been accurately quantified. In this report, we therefore use established literature and additional analysis to estimate the prevalence, determinants and trends in passive smoking exposure, present new systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the magnitude of the effects of passive smoking on the main recognised health consequences in children, and estimate the numbers of cases of illness and death arising from these effects. We also quantify the effect of exposure to smoking behaviour on the risk of children starting to smoke, and estimate the number of children who do take up smoking as a consequence. We then consider the financial cost of the disease burden for the NHS and wider society arising from all of these exposures. The report also explores ethical issues relating to passive smoking and children, and public opinion on measures to prevent passive smoking, concluding with policy options that would reduce exposure of children to this significant health hazard and negative behavioural model. Governments, and societies, have a duty to ensure that children grow up in a safe environment, and are protected from explicit or implicit encouragement to take ...