Critical Thinking - Applying Evidence To Practice Essay

Critical Thinking - Applying Evidence To Practice - Essay Example 112). Smoking has been regarded as the single largest cause of preventable deaths in UK with passive smoking claimed to be taking away between 1000 and 16000 lives on non-smokers annually. Various nations including UK have enacted legislations prohibiting smoking in public places (Webber, 2011). The goal of such laws is to protect non-smokers from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. However, there is concern about the welfare of the district nurses and other health care providers because these legislations do not cover them. Second-hand smoking is of major concern in this study because people who get exposed to it suffer involuntary unlike in the smokers who smoke at their will (Whitehead & Irvine, 2010). Its causes and effects are widely known and the menace can be prevented or reduced to a greater extent through massive campaign and implementation of proper policies to create awareness among the public. Therefore, employers should come up with policies to protect the nurse worke rs against exposure to second-hand smoking when they visit the patients in their homes. Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemical particles of which about 250 are toxic to a human being, and about 69 have carcinogenic effects. It has been termed as the leading single cause of death of human beings around the globe (Pearson, Field & Jordan, 2006, p 153). Exposure to smoking claims about 5 million people annually across the globe. Between 1964 and 2014, there were more than 20 million death cases related to smoking in US out of which 2.5 million occurred to non-smokers and were associated with exposure to secondary smoking. Each year smoking kills about 120,000 people in UK of which more than 11,000 die from second hand smoking (Law & MacDermid, 2013). People get exposed to second-hand smoking in various places such as the workplace, at home and