Tobacco and other tobacco use kill more than seven million people each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, also warning of the environmental impact of tobacco production, distribution and waste.
The UN agency said that stricter measures to control tobacco use are needed, urging countries to ban smoking in the workplace and indoor public spaces, ban the marketing of tobacco products and raise prices for cigarettes ."Tobacco threatens us all," WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a statement. "Tobacco exacerbates poverty, reduces economic productivity, contributes to poor household food choices, and pollutes indoor air," she said.
The WHO warned that the annual death toll of seven million people had jumped from four million at the turn of the century, making tobacco the number one preventable cause of death in the world. And the death toll is expected to continue to rise, with WHO preparing for more than a billion deaths this century.
"By 2030, more than 80 percent of the deaths will occur in developing countries, which have been increasingly targeted by tobacco companies seeking new markets to circumvent tightening regulation in developed nations."
The WHO estimates that more than $ 1.4 trillion ($ 1.3 trillion) of households and governments are spent each year on health care and lost productivity, or almost 2% of the world's gross domestic product . In addition to health and economic costs related to smoking, the WHO report for the first time explored the environmental impact of everything from tobacco production to cigarette butts and other wastes produced by smokers.
- 'Overwhelmingly damaging process' -
"From start to finish, the tobacco life cycle is an overwhelmingly polluting and damaging process," WHO Assistant Director-General Oleg Chestnov said. WHO also highlighted the pollution generated during the production, transport and distribution of tobacco products. WHO urged governments to take strong measures to rein in tobacco use.
The report estimates that the industry emits nearly four million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually - as well as around three million transatlantic flights. And the waste from the process contains more than 7,000 toxic chemicals that poison the environment, including human carcinogens, the WHO said. Two-thirds of the 15 billion cigarettes sold each day are thrown into the street or anywhere else in the environment, he added, adding that cigarette butts account for up to 40 percent of all items collected in coastal areas and clean urban.
"One of the least used, but most effective tobacco control measures... is through increasing tobacco tax and prices," Chestnov said.
