Passive smoking danger doubles

Passive smoking is twice as deadly as previously thought, researchers said yesterday.

Breathing in someone else's tobacco fumes increases the risk of heart disease by 60 per cent.

The threat could be more widespread because of exposure to smoke at work or in pubs or restaurants.

Previous studies, which calculated the risk at 30 per cent, looked only at people who lived with smokers.

The findings will increase the pressure on Tony Blair to follow the lead of New York and Dublin by introducing a ban on smoking in public places.

The latest study involved charting the health of 4,729 men from 18 British towns for 20 years.

It showed higher concentrations of cotinine - a by-product of nicotine - among the non- smokers could increase the risk of heart disease by between 50 and 60 per cent.

Researcher Prof Peter Whincup, from St George's Hospital Medical School in London, said: 'This suggests the effects of passive smoking could have been underestimated in earlier studies.'

Anti-smoking groups claim 4,000 people are killed by passive smoking every year in Britain. Of these, 700 are

BY DAVID HARDING workplace-related. Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health said: 'It is time for the tobacco industry and its front organisations to stop pretending that second-hand smoke is harmless.'

But Simon Clark, from smokers' lobby group Forest, said: 'It is one of over 100 studies on the subject and the vast majority have failed to find any connection between passive smoking and ill-health.'

Next month, the British Medical Association will call for smoking to be banned from workplaces, including pubs and bars, by taking 4,500 letters from doctors to Downing Street.