A shocking new study, funded by Cancer Research UK untaken by the Royal College of Physicians has found that 1 in 5 cot deaths and over 22,000 new cases of child asthma and wheezing is directly related to children inhaling second hand smoke, commonly known as passive smoking.

Research from the Royal College of Physicians also found that more than 20,000 chest infections, 120,000 cases of middle ear disease and 200 cases of meningitis in children is directly related to the amount of passive smoking experienced by children.

The report has led Professor John Britton, chairman of the Royal College of Physicians' tabacco adviser group, to recommend that they should be a total ban on smoking in vehicles as well as public places where children congregate, including smoking around school gates by parents.

The Cancer Research UK funded study found that in families where both parents smoked children were 9 times more likely to inhale second hand smoke than those children who lived in non-smoking families.

Other studies and reports in smoking have suggested that shops take down displays of cigarettes and that cigarette and tabacco companies should be forced to produce generic plan packaging for their products. Others suggest that shots of people smoking in the media and film - which, is argued, glamourises smoking to children - should be radically reduced.