1 billion people could die due to tobacco use: WHO

Tobacco use could kill more than one billion people around the world this century unless governments and civil society act to reverse the epidemic, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report that was released on Thursday.
"One hundred million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century," said the report unveiled by WHO director-general Margaret Chan at a joint press conference with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"If current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century. Eighty per cent of those deaths will occur in the developing world," the report said.
The study, recommends a six-pronged approach to combat the scourge.
The strategies involve monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco use, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and promotion and raising taxes on tobacco.
"While efforts to combat tobacco are gaining momentum, virtually all countries need to do more," Chan said. "These six strategies are within the reach of every country and, when combined as a package, they offer us the best chance of reversing this growing epidemic." Bloomberg, a former smoker, described the report as "revolutionary".
"For the first time, we have both a rigorous approach to stop the tobacco epidemic and solid data to hold us all accountable. While tobacco control measures are sometimes controversial, they save lives and governments need to step up and do the right thing," he said.
The report noted that tobacco use is growing fastest in low-income countries, owing to the steady population growth coupled with the targets by the tobacco industry. The end result is that millions of people become fatally addicted each year.
It said that nearly two thirds of the world’s smokers live in 10 countries: China (accounting for nearly 30 per cent), India (10 per cent), Indonesia, Russia, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany and Turkey.
It noted that only five per cent of the world’s population is protected by comprehensive national smoke-free legislation, while half of the countries — two out of three in the developing world — did not even have minimal data on tobacco use.
"In most countries, tobacco use is higher among the poor than the rich and the poor suffer more from the consequences of tobacco-related diseases, creating economic hardship and perpetuating the cycle of poverty and illness," the study by the UN health agency said.
It made clear that tobacco use currently costs the world hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
The tobacco industry meanwhile spends tonnes of billions of dollars on marketing and targets the developing world with the same marketing and lobbying tactics perfected and now banned in rich countries, the report said.
These include enticing women and teens to use tobacco and pressurising governments to block marketing restrictions and tax hikes.
It singled out higher taxes on tobacco as "the most effective way to decrease consumption and encourage tobacco users to quit". A 70 per cent increase in the price of tobacco could prevent up to a quarter of all smoking-related deaths worldwide, it stat