Second-Hand Smoke Is Still Killing 1.7 Million People Every Year

Cigarette smoking has become more unpopular in the U.S. than ever, especially among teens. Research out this week, however, shows that it's still indirectly killing plenty of people globally via second-hand smoke. An international team of researchers looked at data from hundreds of countries. They calculated that second-hand smoke led to roughly 1.7 million deaths worldwide in 2023. And though the prevalence of second-hand smoke exposure has declined over time, billions of people are still regularly breathing it in, they found. 'We estimated that SHS remains a substantial driver of global health loss, particularly through cardiovascular and pediatric respiratory diseases,' the authors wrote in their paper, published Monday in The Lancet Public Health. These findings are the latest to come from the Global Burden of Diseases study, a long-running research project that seeks to track the prevalence of and harm caused by many health conditions and illnesses. The project is generally managed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. This study includes scientists from the U.S., Canada, Nigeria, and Japan, to name a few. America's Smoking Habit Just Hit a Wild Milestone That Once Seemed Impossible The team examined health and mortality data from 204 countries between 1990 and 2023. Based on this data, around 2.71 billion people were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2023, they estimated, including 767 million children under the age of 15. Second-hand smoke also caused around 1.7 million deaths that year, along with 44.8 million disability-adjusted life-years, or DALYs (one DALY represents a year lost of good health). Countries in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania had the highest levels of second-hand smoke, followed by North Africa and the Middle East. Ischemic heart disease was the single largest contributor to disability associated with second-hand smoke, while lower respiratory infections were the largest cause of disability in children specifically. For the first time ever in the GBD project, the researchers also tracked how second-hand smoke affected the risk of asthma. Asthma represented more than 3% of the DALYS associated with second-hand smoke overall but accounted for more DALYs among children (around 6%). While smoking has declined in popularity across much of the world, it remains a real health threat, the researchers say. After adjusting for age, the global prevalence of second-hand smoke did decline by 22% between 1990 and 2023. But because of population growth, the total number of people exposed remained roughly stable. Importantly, the researchers note that many countries still have few or no laws intended to dissuade smoking in public areas, much less to discourage smoking in general. 'As 70% of the global population remains unprotected by comprehensive smoke-free laws, these findings highlight the need for accelerated implementation of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 8, together with broader tobacco control measures to reduce active smoking,' they wrote. UK Approves Lifelong Ban on Smoking for People Born After 2008 In the U.S. and other countries, such laws and measures have led to a substantial decline in smoking over time, along with a decline in lung cancer and other linked conditions. A study last year, for instance, estimated that reduced smoking between 1970 and 2022 in the U.S. led to roughly 3.9 million fewer lung cancer deaths during that same time period.