More than 560 deaths in Ireland were linked to exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke in 2023, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study.<\/p>\n
Ireland is \u201cgoing in the wrong direction\u201d on tobacco controls and \u201ca total ban\u201d on these products is now needed, the Irish researcher leading the project has said.<\/p>\n
Researchers involved in the long-running study warned that progress on halting smoking has \u201cstalled\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ireland now ranks fifth among 27 EU member states for high levels of second-hand smoke exposure, despite having first introduced the smoking ban in 2004.<\/p>\n
Some 1.37 million people \u2013 27.9% of the population \u2013 were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2023. The analysis covers data from 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2023.<\/p>\n
Dr Zubair Kabir is Ireland\u2019s lead researcher on the Global Burden of Disease Study and a senior lecturer at University College Cork\u2019s School of Public Health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going in the wrong direction in the sense that we should have done more in terms of tackling the burden of tobacco use,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He warned: \u201cOur exposure to second-hand smoke is stuck. The easy gains are behind us.\u201d The ban was not designed for outdoors or private settings,” he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smoking ban is a huge success, but it is not sufficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A key concern arising from this study is the negative impact on people\u2019s health. While the population is living longer, many struggle with smoking-related illnesses.<\/p>\n
These include lung disease, cancers, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. This is measured in DALYs (disability-adjusted life years), with one DALY equal to the loss of one year of full health.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond-hand smoke is still responsible for over 13,000 years of healthy life lost in Ireland every year,\u201d Dr Kabir said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smoking ban was an extraordinary achievement but it was never the finish line.\u201d He urged: \u201cWe need to protect people with a total ban, that is where the burden now lies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UK now has laws making it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009. It is aiming for a smoke-free generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to aim for a smoke-free generation, such as the bill as has been implemented in the UK,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also called for \u201cnew tobacco endgame measures\u201d to be urgently introduced.<\/p>\n
These should include progressive age increases, tighter licensing regulations in retail and enhanced supports for people trying to quit smoking.<\/p>\n
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 is published in The Lancet Public Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 560 deaths in Ireland were linked to exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke in 2023, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[79,103,4892,61,60],"class_list":["post-625743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cork-news","tag-health","tag-health-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}