Government Warns About the Dangers of Passive Smoking in Advertising Campaign

“Three quarters of smoking parents are shocked by the statistics”

The UK government are running an advertising campaign to warn people of the dangers of passive smoking, particularly parents who put their children at risk of illness.

Doctors have reported that around 800 children visit their GP every day with smoking-related complaints and Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies suggests that this is because many parents simply aren’t aware of the risks.

Research suggests that the NHS spends £23million a year dealing with the 300,000 GP visits and 9500 hospital admissions for patients suffering with breathing-related problems as well as diseases of the ear and other illnesses caused by passive smoking.

Dame Sally said: “It is well known that smoking kills, but many smokers do not realise the damage their smoking causes to those around them.

“Our message is clear: giving up smoking is by far the best way to protect your family.”

Can Vaping Help?

Electronic cigarettes are an alternative to smoking regular cigarettes that do not contain the thousands of harmful chemicals present in tobacco smoke. As there is no tar released into the air by an electronic cigarette a lot of the danger from passive smoking is reduced or even outright negated. The vapour produced is the same chemical as that used in smoke machines in clubs and theatres.

The passive, or ‘side-stream’ vapour does contain a small amount of nicotine, but nicotine oxides readily in air, meaning that it breaks down almost instantly when exhaled. You would have to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a particularly heavy vaper to inhale anywhere near enough to have any effect on you at all.

Passive inhalation of substances like tobacco smoke and e-liquid vapour is monitored by the EU PEL (Permissible Exposure Level); the current standard for nicotine is 0.5mg per cubic metre of air (mg/m3) averaged over 8 hours.

To meet and exceed the PEL in a 10m2 room, one would need to vapourise 5ml of e-liquid at once.

In fact, because nicotine oxidises quickly, one would need to vapourise 5ml at once continuously over 8 hours to meet the PEL.

Using electronic cigarettes is a cleaner alternative to smoking both for smokers and for those around them.

Team TABlites.