ABSTRACT
The concept of passive smoking, the involuntary inhalation of other people’s tobacco smoke, has transformed the boundaries within which tobacco smoking can be discussed (Chapman et al., 1990). No longer the sole concern of the smoking self, the public consumption of tobacco is now projected as an activity with serious implications for the health of others. For example, the Health Education Authority (HEA) estimates the risk of lung cancer from passive smoking to be ‘50 to 100 times greater than the risk of lung cancer from exposure to asbestos’ (HEA, 1991a: 3). More directly, the Government’s Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health (ISCSH) quantifies a 10-30 per cent increased risk of lung cancer in non-smokers exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ISCSH, 1988), an assessment further conceptualised in terms of 600 lung cancer cases per year in the UK (King’s Fund, 1988).
