Doctors: Smoking 'causes 40 sudden infant deaths'

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.