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Health Bill

No. I shall carry on because I want to get the evidence on the record. Curiously, the Secretary of State did not get the evidence on the record. I remind my right hon. and hon. Friends that it is not acceptable for us not to make progress. That was at the heart of what we were proposing at the election. We must make progress towards smoke-free environments because the evidence of health effects is increasingly strong. The Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health set out the evidence straightforwardly. The increase in the risk of lung cancer among non-smoking partners of smokers is about 24 per cent. for women. For non-smoking men who are partners of smokers, there is about a 37 per cent. increase in risk. For those who have workplace exposure, there is an 11 per cent. increase It estimates a 25 per cent. increase in risk of coronary heart disease resulting from exposure to second-hand smoke. Insufficient attention has been drawn to this, but what has become most interesting most recently is the significant increase in the risk of coronary heart disease associated with small increases in exposure to second-hand smoke. I shall read the relevant extract from the committee’s report:"““The increased risk associated with exposure to SHS””—" for coronary heart disease, it is about 25 per cent.—"““is . . . a substantial fraction of the risk from active smoking, although uptake of smoke by non-smokers is typically only about 1 per cent. of that by active smokers. Thus it appears that substantial risk arises from quite modest exposure to SHS.””" That is the most important extract from the updated advice of the scientific committee. There is not a linear relationship between dose and risk; if anything, there is a non-linear relationship that shows substantial risks associated with modest exposure.