The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has reported that at least one UK hospitality worker dies every week as a result of passive smoking.

In research published on its website, the BMJ also found that second-hand smoke in all workplaces kills more than two people every working day (617 deaths per year).

The medical publication estimates the total number of UK deaths as a result of passive smoking is 10,950 annually, an average of 30 per day.

The results will lend weight to calls for a total ban on smoking in public places, a move that would go further than Health Secretary John Reid's White Paper proposals.

James Johnson, chairman of the BMJ, told London's Evening Standard: "I don't know how John Reid can continue to serve the public half-measures on health. We need a total ban and we need it now."

Ian Wilmore, a spokesman for the anti-smoking pressure group ASH, told the paper that the mortality rate among hospitality workers was too high a price to pay for indulging a dangerous habit.

by Tom Bill

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