专家称二手烟的危害年杀200万中年人

以下是关于二手烟的危害英文版：
Second-hand smoke to kill 2 million Chinese: report
August 30, 2007 03:35:24 PM PST

Nearly 2 million older people alive today in China are likely to die from emphysema and other chronic lung diseases caused by second-hand smoke, researchers predicted on Thursday.

Their estimates are part of a series of studies showing that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is far more common than had been recognized around the world and will present a serious problem for health officials.

COPD includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis and some types of serious chronic asthma. Smoking is by far the leading cause.

Dr. Peymane Adab and K.K. Cheng of Britain's University of Birmingham, with colleagues in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, used data from a study of 20,430 men and women over the age of 50.

Most had never smoked.

"More than half of never smokers reported exposure to passive smoking in their workplace and at home, with 28 percent reporting high levels of total adult exposure," Adab and Cheng wrote in their report, published in the Lancet medical journal.

Anyone who spent more than 40 hours a week in and around cigarette smoke for more than five years was considered to have high exposure.

These people were on average 48 percent more likely to develop COPD, the researchers found.

"Of all deaths in China, around 11.6 percent among never smokers are attributable to COPD," the researchers wrote.

"If our risk estimates are correct, and assuming that current mortality and passive smoking exposure patterns continue, of the 240 million people aged over 50 years alive today in China, high exposure to passive smoking would result in about 1.9 million excess deaths from COPD among never smokers."

MAJOR KILLER

China has high rates of smoking, with an estimated 40 percent of the population being current or former smokers.

The World Health Organization estimates that 2.5 million people die of COPD every year, about as many as die from AIDS.

But these numbers could be low, said Dr. Sonia Buist and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University.

Their study of 9,425 people aged 40 and over from 12 countries found that more than 10 percent of them had moderate to severe COPD. That is far higher than the most recent estimate of 4.3 percent.

"These results suggest that future anti-smoking policies should, in addition to targeting active smoking, also consider addressing passive smoking," Dr. Ana Menezes and Dr. Pedro Hallal of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas in Brazil wrote in a commentary.

In Buist's survey, Cape Town, South Africa had the most cases of COPD, with 22 percent of men and more than 16 percent of women affected.

Hannover, Germany had the lowest rates, with 8.6 percent of men and 3.7 percent of women affected.

An estimated 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD, but U.S. health survey data suggest that as many as 24 million Americans have the ailment, the Lancet reported.

专家称二手烟的危害年杀200万中年人（中文版）

【明報專訊】國際著名醫學雜誌《刺針》昨日發表由香港大學 社會醫學系系主任林大慶，英國 伯明翰 大學教授鄭家強及廣州多名學者聯手做的研究報告預料，每年有近200萬超過50歲的中國內地居民會因

 
吸入二手煙引發慢性疾病而死亡。

研究人員於2003年開始，在廣州醫院招募2萬名從不吸煙的50歲以上人士，調查他們的生活習慣，以及測試他們的肺功能，其中90%受訪者是婦女。

醫療開支每年190億元

研究發現，過半數受訪者的工作地方或寓所是長期暴露於二手煙的影響之下，其中28%受訪者更是高度暴露於二手煙的環境中（非吸煙者每星期最少接觸40小時的二手煙，並且維持超過5年）。這些非吸煙者中，有48％會患上肺氣腫及慢性支氣管炎等慢性肺病。

港大教授籲加強宣傳煙害

報告指出，內地約有40%居民是煙民或曾經吸煙，每年估計有10萬人死於吸入二手煙所引起的疾病。

鄭家強表示，如果按照這份報告分析，而且死亡率和吸入二手煙的情仍沒有改善，全國2.4億年齡在50歲以上的內地人中，每年會有超過190萬名非吸煙者死於二手煙所引起的慢性肺病。二手煙問題所花的醫療開支，每年最少190億元人民幣。

鄭家強指出，現時內地人對吸煙的危害意識非常低，只有30%人知道吸煙危害健康，故推行控煙工作難度較大。而林大慶認為，中國要制定和實施控煙法例，必須先加強宣傳教育，讓國民得知二手煙禍害，然後進一步推行大規模全面室內禁煙行動。

雖然明年北京奧運會 期間，北京市內所有交通工具均不准吸煙，且中國政府亦準備在2011年禁止所有煙草廣告，但鄭家強指出，政府應該推行室內全面禁煙，才能最有效保障非吸煙人士健康。