LATEST research suggests that people exposed to passive smoke have a 50 to 60 per cent risk of a heart attack.

And, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal, non-smokers who live with a smoker, have a 15 per cent greater risk of premature death than those living in a smoke-free household.

Clearly these figures apply to adults. So how might children, with underdeveloped and delicate immune and respiratory systems be affected?

Other research has identified that when smoke is inhaled, nicotine receptors which cause the craving and can exist indefinitely are created in the brain. It has also been identified that nicotine is more addictive than heroin. So how many children might be addicted to nicotine before they become teenagers?

Would it be right to inject children with heroin? Hardly. It's a crime that would attract a prison sentence. Why then are adults, in effect, allowed to "inject" their children with nicotine?

According to the NHS, 17,000 children visit hospital every year suffering from the effects of passive smoke inhalation.

And not only should children be protect from carcinogenic cigarette smoke, but also from the harmful image that smoking is "cool" and "grown up". I had my first cigarette when I was eleven, and I was 26 before I managed to kick the habit. Thirty years on, am I thankful and better- off for having done so.

JOHN PLAYER