By Marwaan Macan-Markar
MEXICO CITY, Jun 3 2001 (IPS)

Public health advocates in Latin America are moving to reduce the number of people, especially children, exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke.

The Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) is spearheading the effort, which involves working with national and local governments to reduce by one-fifth the number of children exposed to second- hand smoke by 2006. Their primary concern is the home, where children are in close contact with parents and other adults who smoke.

“We estimate that at least one third, and probably more, of children in the Americas are exposed to tobacco smoke in the home,” says Heather Selin, a PAHO advisor. The worst affected are children in Argentina, Chile and Surinam, where the “exposure rates are highest.”

These children, adds Selin, are often the innocent victims of second-hand smoke health hazards, which range from respiratory diseases, like asthma, to death. According to PAHO, between 122,000 and 209,000 nonsmokers in the Americas die every year from second-hand smoke.

“Second-hand smoke does not discriminate when it kills,” Selin says, adding that children rarely are in a position to determine the quality of air indoors and often cannot voluntarily leave a smoky environment.

The latest push comes in the wake of similar attempts by anti- smoking activists to highlight the dangers of second-hand smoke for children around the world.

“The effort to establish smoke-free environments is an important tool in the global effort to reduce tobacco-related death and disease,” says Judy Wilkenfield, director of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a Washington-based non-governmental organisation.

According to Wilkenfield, US researchers have confirmed that children are particularly vulnerable to respiratory ailments caused by exposure to second-hand smoke.

“Even more shocking, the US Surgeon General has found that second- hand smoke is a risk factor for a new case of asthma as well as increasing the severity of disease among children with established asthma,” she says. “Second-hand smoke is also thought to be a cause of sudden infant death syndrome.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a report entitled ‘Tobacco and the Rights of the Child’, argues that countries failing to protect their children from smoke-filled environments are contributing to the violation of children’s rights.

“Nearly 700 million children, or almost half of the world’s children, breathe air polluted by second-hand smoke,” WHO says. “In almost all cases they have no choice in the matter as they are unable to protest or protect themselves.”

Governments, the report adds, should take all necessary legislative and regulatory measures to protect children from tobacco “and ensure that the interests of children take precedence over those of the tobacco industry.”

The report also calls on governments to recognise the tobacco industry’s efforts to “aggressively promote its products” among young people as another violation of children’s rights.

Some 250 million children alive today “will be killed by tobacco in the future if current consumption trends continue,” the report says.

WHO estimates that close to four million people die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses each year and expects the annual death toll to rise to 10 million by 2030 if smoking is left unchecked.

Selin, at PAHO, notes, “Second-hand smoke has been incorporated into discussions on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

The UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by all but two countries, affirms the right of children to be guaranteed special protection, opportunities and facilities for healthy, normal development.

However, the UN’s leading child rights agency questions such efforts by public health advocates. “This should not be seen as a litmus test of government sincerity towards the child rights convention,” says Alfred Ironside, a spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“This is certainly a new area of emphasis, part of our learning curve about the damage second-hand tobacco smoke causes,” he adds. “UNICEF needs to study it more, but for the moment it is not a priority area among our programmes.”

Excerpt: