WHO warns of one billion death toll from tobacco

Feb 11 2008

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a stark warning about smoking saying that unless urgent action is taken, by the year 2100 tobacco could kill one billion people.

According to a WHO report there are currently 5.4 million deaths every year linked to smoking and by 2030, there will be more than 8 million deaths every year, 80% of those in developing countries.

The newly released data shows that no country fully implements all key tobacco control measures and it outlines what governments need to do to prevent tens of millions of premature deaths by the middle of the century.

The WHO report warns of a devastating tobacco epidemic which is getting worse and says tobacco kills up to half of those who use it.

The report says much of tobacco's damage to health only becomes evident years or even decades after the onset of use and the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has yet to reach its peak.

Despite a multitude of research showing that tobacco use is one of the main risk factors for a plethora of chronic diseases, including cancer, lung diseases, and cardiovascular diseases, tobacco use is common throughout the world and its use is rising globally.

The WHO says tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced and lays the blame squarely on aggressive and widespread marketing, low prices and a lack of awareness about its dangers, and inconsistent public policies against its use.

There are more than one billion smokers in the world and almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke; more than 80% of the world's smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.

Tobacco products such as cigarettes are made entirely or partly from leaf tobacco and are smoked, sucked, chewed or snuffed; they all contain the highly addictive psychoactive ingredient, nicotine.

Tobacco kills one person every six seconds and accounts for 1 in 10 adult deaths worldwide.

While a number of countries have legislation restricting tobacco advertising, and regulating who can buy and use tobacco products, and where people can smoke, only 5% of the world's population live in countries that fully protect their population with any one of the key measures that reduce smoking rates.

The report also reveals that governments around the world collect 500 times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on anti-tobacco efforts.

The WHO says this epidemic can be halted with a set of six effective tobacco control policies called MPOWER.

These include;

• the monitoring of tobacco use and prevention policies,

• protecting people from tobacco smoke,

• helping smokers to quit tobacco use, warning about the dangers of tobacco,

• enforcing bans on tobacco advertising,

• promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco.

The MPOWER package provides countries with a roadmap to help them meet their commitments to the global tobacco treaty known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into force in 2005.

The report says a global tobacco industry strategy which targets young people and adults in the developing world, ensures that millions of people become fatally addicted every year and describes in particular the targeting of young women as one of the "most ominous potential developments of the epidemic’s growth".

The report found that 40% of countries still allow smoking in hospitals and schools and only 5% of the world's population lives in countries with comprehensive national bans on tobacco advertising and promotion.

Only 15 countries (6% of the global population) have mandatory pictorial warnings on tobacco packaging, and services to treat tobacco dependence are fully available in only nine countries, (5% of the world's people).

Dr. Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, says the six strategies will create a powerful response to the tobacco epidemic and create an enabling environment to help current tobacco users quit, protect people from second-hand smoke and prevent young people from taking up the habit.

The new report is the first comprehensive worldwide analysis of tobacco use and control efforts and the WHO is working with global partners to increase the help that can be offered to countries to implement the strategies.