WHO warns of passive smoking 'global threat'

The World Health Organisation has reported that nearly 600,000 people are killed every year as a result of second-hand smoke.

The UN agency's second report on the global "tobacco epidemic" has warned that despite seven different countries implementing national anti-smoking measures in 2008, tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of death.

Combined, the WHO says that five million people are killed every by direct or passive smoking. In it's report it states that "unless urgent action is taken" to control the "tobacco epidemic" and encourage people to quit smoking, "the annual death toll could rise to eight million by 2030.

In the summary to the report, WHO officials have urged governments around the world to implement their 2005 framework convention on tobacco control. This convention urges countries to adopt measures to prevent smoking, from enforcing bans on advertising, raising taxes, protecting people from passive smoke through public bans, and by assisting people in overcoming their addiction to stop smoking.

The agency's report repeats one of the most significant reasons to stop smoking - the effect it can have on non-smokers. Second hand smoke has recently been linked to increasing rates of adult asthma as well as raised risks of breast cancer. Worryingly, recent research has also suggested that children exposed to passive smoking are at particular risk. One study found that children whose parent's smoke have a higher level of nicotine in their systems, and another found that very young and overweight children are even more vulnerable.