Smoking remains biggest challenge for employers in developing countries

With 200,000 workers dying each year due to exposure to smoke in the workplace, this year's World No Tobacco Day (31st May 2007) is designed to wake up employers worldwide to the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Of the 4000 or so chemicals contained in every exhalation of smoke, at least 50 of these are known to be carcinogenic or toxic, a potential cause of cancer for anyone who inhales them. Particularly deadly is carbon monoxide, colourless and invisible, which along with pollutant smoking waste such as acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde, quickly spreads through the body leading to a range of serious diseases.

Neither ventilation nor filtration can reduce tobacco smoke indoors to exposure levels that are considered acceptable, either in terms of odour or more significantly, health effects. Only 100% smoke-free environments adequately protect from dangers of second-hand smoke. On the positive side, smoke-free environments have been proven to provide the many smokers who want to quit with a strong incentive to cut down or stop smoking altogether.

World No Tobacco Day will give workers in England a taste of the fresh air to come, just one month in advance of the date when all work and public places will by law be smoke-free as England comes into line with the rest of the UK in terms of smoking legislation. But although by July 1st, it's estimated that 240 million people will be protected by smoke-free legislation - in parts of Europe, in New Zealand, Bermuda, Uruguay as well as areas of Australia, Canada and the United States - that's still less than 4 percent of the world population. It's in the developing world in particular, where the number of smokers is rising and health budgets are so small, that currently half of the world's 5 million tobacco-related deaths occur every year. By 2030, if current trends continue, it's estimated 8 out of every 10 tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.

For more information about introducing and supporting no smoking campaigns and health promotion initiatives for employees working in developing countries and remote environments, email rebecca.gargan@frontiermedical.co.uk.