Almost two million people worldwide could be dying every year as a result of second-hand smoke, a major study has found.
Also known as passive smoking, it occurs when someone breathes in smoke from another person’s cigarette, pipe or cigar.
And even small amounts can be harmful – raising the risk of heart disease, stroke, lung conditions and cancer.
In the UK alone, researchers estimated that second-hand smoke was responsible for 6,100 deaths in 2023 – making it deadlier than diseases such as bladder cancer.
That is a dramatic fall from 14,900 deaths in 1990, but scientists behind the new study, published in The
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