Don't compare air pollution to smoking

Don't compare air pollution to smoking

Why in News?

Anti-tobacco activists have expressed concern that comparing the ill-effects of air pollution to that of smoking will result in trivialising the catastrophic effects of smoking.

Key facts:

*It is absurd to compare the health consequences of air pollution with that of smoking. Needless to say, both are equally important public health issues and the comparisons are being made to probably simplify it for lay people.
*Such comparisons are based on a formula proposed by a Berkeley Earth study that draws an equivalence between the hazards of air pollution and smoking. 
*The common ingredients of air pollution are mainly carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and suspended particulate matter.
*Cigarette smoke, in addition to all the above, is made of nearly 7,000 toxic chemicals and at least 69 of them are highly carcinogenic.
*Suspended particulate matter in the air per day and per lifetime is nearly 200 times lesser than that from cigarettes.
*When a smoker is present in the room, the indoor pollution levels are much higher than outdoor pollution at times.
*A smoker not only exposes self to the carcinogens and toxic particles but all the others near him.