被动吸烟，在其他人的二手烟中呼吸的地方花了更长的时间才能被识别。在英国流行的艺人罗伊·卡斯尔（Roy Castle）于1994年因被动吸烟引起的肺癌而去世后，人们通常开始注意到。尽管他从未抽烟，但罗伊·卡斯尔（Roy Castle）一生都在烟熏俱乐部工作。
There was a time not so many years ago when smoking was regarded as a perfectly acceptable and respectable pastime. People smoked in pubs, restaurants, in meetings, in the cinema, on public transport, in fact everywhere. It was only when research proved conclusively that smoking was a major cause of cancer and a whole raft of other life-threatening conditions that this universal practice began to be questioned.
Questions began to be asked. If a husband was a heavy smoker, but his wife was not, would she be at risk from passive smoking, and what about their children? Also, would non-smokers be more at risk from passive smoking in the more confined space of a car?
2003年，据估计，有11,000人死亡是由于被动吸烟而导致的，到2007年，整个英国已制定了无烟立法。这涵盖了所有封闭的工作场所和公众可以进入的地方，包括公共交通和工作车辆。
Private homes remained exempt, unless used for childminding, but the anti-smoking lobby would like to see a universal ban on smoking in the home and in cars simply to protect children.
In fact, the overall level of passive smoke exposure in children has substantially fallen in recent years, due, it is thought, partly to the fact that people in general are smoking less and partly because people are more careful about smoking in front of their children.
However, figures suggest that children who live in homes with regular smokers are exposed to about seven times more smoke than children who live in smoke-free homes.
The anti-smoking lobby point out that passive smoking is estimated to cost the National Health Service £9.7 million a year on GP visits and asthma treatments alone, plus a further £13.6 million in hospital admissions. Passive smoking is said to increase the risk of asthma in children by more than 50%, with risks being significantly greater if their mother smokes.
The problem with statistics is that they are often very hard to prove. It has been claimed that tobacco smoke in cars is 23 times more toxic than tobacco smoke in the home, but this figure is disputed in a new study headed by Dr Ray Pawson of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds.
The study sets out to look at the evidence of risks associated with smoking in cars carrying children, with particular reference to "myths, facts and conditional truths".
The authors say that although evidence is incomplete, it is an incontrovertible fact that exposure in cars is still commonplace and children are particularly vulnerable. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that steps should be taken to ban smoking in all cars carrying children.
