A recent study carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) says that smoking kills over 600,000 people around the world every year. A of them are children. The 1.2 smokers worldwide are not only risking their own lives but the lives of non-smokers as well. According to the study, both and passive smoking kill almost 6 million people a year.

The report says that passive smoking leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths from heart diseases, infections , as well as asthma and lung .

Children are the group hardest hit by passive smoking. But while in Europe only few die because of second-hand smoke, over 40,000 were killed in Africa last year. A few months ago a report released in the US showed that more than half of American children between the ages of 3 and 11 had in their blood that came from passive smoking.

Most who smoke do so at home and in front of their children. Children whose parents smoke also have a higher risk of infections and other diseases like and bronchitis.

About a third of all adults and 40% of all children worldwide are to passive smoking on a regular basis. Experts say that smoking in public places can help health care costs and lower the number of people who die through passive smoking. Studies show that anti-smoking laws in bars and restaurants can massively lower to smoke. Such laws can also help people quit smoking.

The report comes to the that more needs to be done to protect non-smokers at their place of work and on public transport. Right now only 20% of the world's population lives in areas with strict anti-smoking .