WHO To Call For Public Smoking Bans Worldwide Based On CalEPA Report Linking Secondhand Smoke To Increased Breast Cancer Risk

The World Health Organization on Thursday at the 13th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Washington, D.C., plans to recommend smoking bans in workplaces and public grounds worldwide based on a California Environmental Protection Agency report released in January, USA Today reports (Ritter, USA Today, 7/13). The report, which was conducted by the CalEPA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, looks at more than 1,000 studies on the effects of secondhand smoke and finds the exposure to secondhand smoke increases young women's risk for breast cancer by 68% to 120%. The report also finds that secondhand smoke can cause preterm deliveries and low birthweights. The report's findings on breast cancer were the first ever to be made by a government agency in the U.S. (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/27). A WHO policy report due in September will use the CalEPA report as the scientific root of its recommendations, according to USA Today. The two reports will be published together, Yumiko Mochizuki, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, said. Only a few countries, including Ireland, have instituted complete smoking bans similar to what WHO plans to recommend (USA Today, 7/13).


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