May 31 is celebrated on world non smoking day, a touch of attention, a call with which to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco consumption.
There are data that are incontestable: Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. Today, using tobacco kills one adult in ten worldwide.
Stunning figures that, however, do not scare the thousands of citizens who continue to light a cigarette every day, sometimes even in front of their own children.
Every year, from the WHO they propose to focus on this day the problem of smoking towards a specific aspect, this year they have proposed to make an international call for the neutral packaging of tobacco products.
Neutral packaging
According to the World Health Organization, neutral packaging reduces the attractiveness of products for consumers and also prevents them from being an advertising platform for brands.
In 2012, Australia was the first country in the world to apply the neutral packaging of tobacco packs. Three years later, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and France passed different laws on neutral packaging that will be imposed in their respective territories from May of this year.
If the attractiveness of the products to consumers is diminished with measures such as this, it may be possible to reduce tobacco consumption and therefore that of passive smoking figures that are worrying organizations such as Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery.
Child Passive Smoking
In fact, the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) has tried to draw attention to the enormous danger of passive smoking and even more when we talk about passive smoking in children. A reality that leads too often to respiratory and heart disease in children.
To expose to public opinion this reality that sometimes seems to happen in front of our eyes but we don't even see it, SEPAR has even raised the possibility that exposure to tobacco smoke in minors could be considered as a form of child abuse, taking into account the tremendous damage that is infringed on the child's health with this practice.
From June 10 to 13, SEPAR will hold its 49 National Congress in the city of Granada, in which José Francisco Pascual, a member of this society, will address the issue of passive smoking in children.
On this, the positions are not unanimous, there are two differentiated tendencies on how passive smoking should be addressed in minors.
One poses as we said before, the possibility of defining passive smoking in minors as a suspicion of child abuse, what would allow to denounce this conduct before the courts or competent authorities.
The second trend, suggests that this measure would be to reinforce the punishment for an addiction that damages children and parents, and the need for informative actions on passive smoking so that parents can take the necessary measures to solve the problem or What is the same, addiction.
What is undeniable is that the damage caused by passive smoking on children is increasing and they result in respiratory pathologies such as asthma or pneumonia, serious cardiac pathologies, increased caries and diabetes and even is related to sudden infant death.
Naturally, this greater condition implies an increase in hospitalizations that could be avoided by the disappearance of passive smoking suffered by some children.
SEPAR considers the need to take new measures by the administrations to regulate the use of cigarettes in closed places such as the home or private vehicle, provided there are children inside or even, in the presence of minors, harden the prohibition of smoking in certain open spaces.
