Passive smoking to kill millions in China

FRANCE: Chronic bronchitis and emphysema caused by passive smoking are set to kill nearly two million people in China who today are aged over 50, according to a study published Friday.

That toll more than doubles if one include deaths from lung cancer and heart disease also inflicted by second-hand tobacco, one of the authors told AFP.

The study, led by K.K. Cheung and Peymane Adab of Birmingham University in Britain, found that people who had never smoked were 48 percent more likely to suffer chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) if exposed to heavy tobacco smoke.

This was defined as 40 hours of exposure a week for more than five years, in a workplace or home where colleagues or family members smoked.

Paris, Friday, AFP