One in a hundred deaths due to passive smoking

Around one in a hundred deaths worldwide each year is due to passive smoking, experts have claimed.

Exposure to second-hand smoke causes more than 600,000 people to die each year - 165,000 of them children - according to Dr Annette Prss-Ustn from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Smoke-free legislation in many places has helped reduce exposure in the workplace, but many remain concerned about women and children experiencing passive smoking in the home.

Writing in The Lancet, the authors conclude: "There can be no question that the 1.2 billion smokers in the world are exposing billions of non-smokers to second-hand smoke."