People exposed to passive smoking, also known as second hand smoking, are at a greater risk of stroke, a new study says. This is also true of a non-smoker married to a smoking partner, respiratory health experts say.

The study, carried out by a Harvard University team, looked at records of more than 16,000 people aged over 50 and their spouses over a period of, on average, slightly more than nine years. The results showed that non-smokers living in the same house as a smoker were at far greater risk of stroke

- A new law will go into effect on July 1 banning smoking tobacco indoors throughout the Netherlands. What this means for Amsterdam's historic coffee shops, where smoking tobacco laced with marijuana is more of the main draw, remains up for debate.

According to reports, coffee shop owners say the new ban should not effect them because 'coffee shops' are a place where people go to smoke. They say it is preposterous for the ban to extend to their shops, just as it would be for food to be banned from restaurants, or alcohol from a bar

Good news for non-smokers and bad news for smokers, Thailand has banned smoking in all bars, nightclubs and even open-air restaurants or markets, which should have dedicated smoking areas.

The smoking ban, which took effect February 17 (Sunday), is met with mixed reactions. Venue owners are apprehensive in implementing the ban, fearing that it may drive away their customers

Scientists concluded from a study that the lung functions of cystic fibrosis sufferers with a particular gene variation are worsened upon the patients' exposure to secondhand smoke.

The findings were derived from a six-year experiment involving hundreds of CF patients, and thorough analysis of conditions related to CF and secondhand smoke. The John Hopkins University researchers discovered that passive smoking was linked to decrease in lung function

Top officials of China have vowed to implement stiffer measures related to smoking following reports that 540 million Chinese suffer from secondhand smoke and about a million people across the region die annually due to tobacco related diseases.

In a top level conference focusing on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) held Saturday in Beijing, the delegates signed a proposal calling for a no-smoking environment and an implementation of a law banning smoking in public places