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700 medics and health experts call for car smoking ban

Around 700 health experts and medics have called upon on the Government to ban smoking in cars carrying children ahead of a Commons vote on Monday.

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Doctors: Smoking 'causes 40 sudden infant deaths'

On Thursday, 692 doctors, nurses and other health professionals and experts had signed up to support the ban on smoking in cars.Their letter in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) said:

Secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke is a major cause of ill health in children.

Smoke inhalation damages the developing lung, and the Royal College of Physicians estimates that each year in the UK it is responsible for 300,000 primary care contacts, 9,500 hospital admissions, at least 200 cases of bacterial meningitis and 40 sudden infant deaths.

Most of this additional burden of disease falls on the more disadvantaged children in society, and all of it is avoidable.

700 health experts and medics call for car smoking ban

Around 700 health experts and medics have called upon on the Government to ban smoking in cars carrying children ahead of a Commons vote on Monday.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), respiratory experts said secondhand smoke was a "major cause of ill health in children", damaging the developing lungs, causing sudden infant death and leading to thousands of hospital trips every year.

Experts have called for a ban. Credit: Clive Gee/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Signatories to the letter are being coordinated by Dr Nicholas Hopkinson from Imperial College London and chairman of the British Thoracic Society's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease specialist advisory group.

Read: Smoking in cars with children could be banned after Lords vote

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