奇速英语

Doctors have been warning for years that secondhand smoke leads to many types of illness. However, many children around the world live in areas where adults regularly smoke.

A journal called Annals of Family Medicine recently published an article calling for doctors to start treating children's contact with secondhand smoke as abuse （恶习）. In that case, contact to secondhand smoke would be viewed much like physical abuse. 

The author of the article is a professor at University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Adam Goldstein says secondhand smoke causes many diseases in children. These diseases include asthma（哮喘） and pneumonia（肺炎）. He adds that no amount of secondhand smoke is safe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that secondhand smoke can cause serious health problems in children. They say that compared to children who grow up in homes without smokers, children with parents who smoke have smaller lungs and more illnesses. 

The article about secondhand smoke and children comes at the same time the World Health Organization is increasing calls to fight against tobacco companies.

Dr. Margaret Chan is the director-general of the organization. She says she believes tobacco companies are trying to avoid and even weaken anti-tobacco laws.

Speaking in March at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Chan warned the fight against tobacco companies is going to be difficult. But, she added, "We should not give up until we make sure the tobacco industry goes out of business." Other leading public health researchers who spoke at the conference called for the sale of tobacco to end by 2040. 

About one billion people are expected to die from smoking and other forms of tobacco over the next century. Most of these deaths will be in low-to-middle-income countries.

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