§ Lord Stoddart of Swindonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What claims of damage to health caused by tobacco smoke in the environment have been made by the medical doctors who have recently requested a complete ban on smoking tobacco in indoor public places; what clinical and statistical evidence they provided to support their request; what are the sources of such evidence; and whether they have been tested by any objective expert body. [HL3689]
§ Lord Warner:The Government received 4,500 letters from doctors on the need for smoke-free public places as a result of the initiative of the British Medical Association (BMA).
There is clear evidence of the harm done by secondhand smoke. In 2002, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer published a summary of its monograph on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans, which concluded that "there is sufficient evidence that involuntary smoking (exposure to secondhand or 'environmental' tobacco smoke) causes lung cancer in humans". The full monograph Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking was published in 2004.
The Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) in 1998 concluded that secondhand smoke is a cause of lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory illness and asthma attacks in children, and is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome.
SCOTH is undertaking a review of studies since 1998 and its report is expected shortly.
The BMA has included its views on smoke-free public places in its response to the Choosing Health? consultation. We are currently considering all the many responses we have received. These will inform the development of a White Paper on improving health that we will publish later in the year.