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THE NUMBER OF tobacco-related deaths have tripled in the past decade to almost 50 million people worldwide, according to the latest report from the Tobacco Atlas.
The report by the health campaign group the World Lung Foundation details how one person dies every six seconds from tobacco use or exposure – and warns that, if current trends continue, one billion people will die this century.
Tobacco is now the number one killer in China, where it currently causes 1.2 million deaths each year. That figure is expected to almost triple by 2030.
After China, tobacco use or exposure is responsible for the largest proportion of male deaths in Turkey (38 per cent) and Kazakhstan (53 per cent)
Tobacco-related illness remain the biggest killer of women in the United States (23 per cent).
In Ireland, 22.1 per cent of male deaths and 21.6 per cent of female deaths are due to tobacco.
One of the report’s authors and director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University, Michael Eriksen, said that smoking rates in the developed world declining but numbers growing in poorer regions.
The report warns that the tobacco industry is stepping up its fight against anti-tobacco policies – for example, by launching legal challenges in an attempt stop the introduction of plain packaging, legislation banning smoking in public places, and advertising bans and health warnings on packets.
According to the report, the six biggest tobacco firms in the world made $35.1 billion in profits last year – a sum equal to the combined earnings of Coca-Cola, Microsoft and McDonald’s.
The World Health Organisation says tobacco is linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, accounting for more than 63 per cent of deaths worldwide.
For advice on stopping smoking, please visit ASH Ireland
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It’s a smokers own business if they affect themselves but what about all those still affected by passive smoking in this country
We still can’t comfortably go in the entrance to a shopping centre,hospital or pub without being polluted
Smokers should be confined to smoking at home
Roll on the thumbs down by all the smokers or former smokers
Its not a smokers own business if they increase the burden on the health system with the health complications associated with their choice. Former smoker by the way so save the “its so difficult to quit” nonsense just stop, save yourself thousands and enjoy a better life already, or keep pouring money into something that has a good chance of giving you a slow painful death, your “choice” I suppose.
dont be so stupid colm , it is difficult to quit , its one of the most addictive substances around
laughing at the red thumbs
As I said Duck I am a former smoker so calling me “stupid” for suggesting its easy to quit doesn’t really make much of a point. I started young and smoked for years and gave up just over a year ago, addictive or not you make the choice to continue buying and smoking cigarettes the sooner you realise that the better, you cant just say that cigarettes are “one of the most addictive substances around” and blame that for your continued smoking, I’ll let you in on the secret of how I stopped smoking (I just stopped doing it) Just like punching yourself in the face its possible to stop yourself walking into a shop and asking for 20 cigarettes as hard as it may be to believe for you but try my method of just not doing it and see how it goes, I guarantee if you just dont do it your evil addiction wont find a sneaky way to get those cigarettes into your mouth….
im saying your ignoring the facts that its one of the most addictice substances around , some are more easily addicted than others, each persons biology is different. ps there is nothing worse than an ex smoker pontificating, pps im an ex smoker too.
Colm,I’m the same as you,I quit no problem,then a couple of years later I started again (shitty situations and stress) then quit again with little problem and been off them for near 3 years. I found it easy.
However,my husband found it next to impossible,he had a hard time. So did my mother,she gained weight,got depressed,angry etc…. My step dad had less of a problem.
My point is,it is different for everyone. Just because me and you were lucky does not mean IRS not extremely addictive. Different people get hooked harder than others.
Why do these reports always give the impression that if you don’t smoke you won’t die?
Going to have a smoke break lol…
If you get that impression from reading these reports, you’re doing it wrong.
If people know its bad and continue to smoke there stupid
IT’S bad so THEY’RE stupid?
People want to stop , but the thing is its very addictive , especially when the tobacco companies make it even more addictive. What we need is safer choices eg , vapourised nicotine , vapourised cannabis , mdma etc. A risk based approach to drugs. Legalise and Educate. End the idiotically named ‘war on drugs’ which is really a war against people.
“They are” stupid not “there” stupid.
Easy for a non smoker to say..
It’s ‘it’s’ not ‘its’.
Yeah well, Nit pickers, put this in yer pipe and smoke it! i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
well said paddy now f**k off grammar police….
Didnt hear weed have kill someone yet…just saying
Gave up last august using the Allan Carr method, have never felt better, not the easiest thing I’ve ever done but by Jesus it’s worth it
Did that once and caved on a holiday months later. Think I’ll re-read it!
Definitely try again. I got 9 months out of the method first time round and, like you, caved on a big holiday. I was kidding myself about how temporary it was all the way back to full time smoking!
I quit a second time (now permanent, thankfully) using the method a year or two later and I’m 6 years off them in May. The reason I think the I failed the first time is that I was inspired to quit after about 3 chapters, and stopped reading it. The book tells you not to quit yet, but I was looking at each cigarette in a different light and really didn’t want to smoke it.
I cant understand why otherwise intelligent friends of mine including doctors continue to smoke! Should be priced out of existence .
it because its one of the most addictive substances out there
have to laugh at the red thumbs
Doctors? Cardiologists out the back of the Bon Secours, all having their smoking break! (Plus, Maurice Neligan, who carried out a double bypass on me, was known as a chain smoker.)
Doctors are entiteld to smoke if they like, but PLEASE, I can’t stand hypocrites.
‘phantom duck Nibbler’ is correct. Smoking is horribly addictive, and it’s much more difficult for some to give up than it is for others.
So don’t preach at people. You’ll just make them reach for another cig.
What % of people die from cannabis related illness ? This gateway drug theory is bs. It’s illegal because what you grow in your garden can’t be taxed. How much revenue would the government lose if smoking was only allowed in the home. 20% of men 20% of women die each year from related illness that is tantamount to genocide or should I say smokocide :-)
100% correct. Plus Alcohol is a million times worse but all the little dumb sheep just follow the media and do what they are told. People are so dumb its scary.
Only ignorant fools think cannabis is more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol.
….aaaand here come the red thumbs.
Ireland,I accidentally red thumbed you….just saying…. :)
Stressed after reading that, think ill go for a smoke
Overpopulated world, pensions are expensive, smokers are high tax contributors. The average life expectancy of a smoker happens to be retirement age. You have to have personal culpability in this world. It is not the States business to dictate our every action.
I always thought it would be a smart move to ban selling smokes to people born on and after a certain year i.e. if the law was brought in in 2012 than the ban would apply to anyone born in 1994 or later and as the years passed 1994 would always be the legal year,basically you would make it illegal for tabacco companies to obtain new customers,within 10-20 years the benefits would be astronomical,alas governments rarely look into long term investment and the reality is going to be more taxes,larger health bills and more preventable deaths.
Ban Tobacco. It killed my dad, my aunt and uncle in the most horrendous way.
Good luck to those who gamble with the deadly drag. You’re odds are pretty poor.
If we humans were ment to smoke we would have a chimney on our heads and also I read a hospital in the USA wont operate on smokers.
CHAMPIX is dangerous. (I’m quoting my GP – plus some articles on the net.) It causes depression, and in some cases, suicidal tendencies.
The only way people will stop smoking is when they actually want to stop. And when they do you will with a medication called CHAMPIX. I was smoking 12 years I never touched nicotine patches I went straight for CHAMPIX and now I’m off the smokes 1year 5months and I told 6 people about them and now there off them :) don’t know why people bother with nicotine patches they never work
Oope, see my Champix comment above. It should have been down here.
To be honest wayupnorth I only got nightmares when I was taking them that’s the only side effect I had while taking them. Other than that I am now smoke free and my doctor is good and he obviously wouldn’t prescribe something if it were dangerous to my health to be honest it did the best for me and I am saving lots of cash :)
Population Control Operation a great success.
“The World Health Organisation says tobacco is linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, accounting for more than 63 per cent of deaths worldwide.”
If this is true – why are the governments of the world not just banning the Tobacco? We all banned heroin and cocaine over a hundred years ago and they were once widely available also.
You have to been in awe of the lobbying power of the Tobacco industry! (Thank you for smoking)
It’s naive to think the drugs you listed are banned because of health concerns.
Ah, well more space, fresh air and oil for the rest of us. The world would be overpopulated if all the smokers were still alive.
My apologies Sean Doyle I miss read your comment
And on what basis have you come to that conclusion Sean Doyle
If I’m understanding your original comment correctly Ireland, I’m actually agreeing with you. Not a single death in the history of mankind has been directly attributed to cannabis. To overdose on it you’d have to snake a joint the strength of 20,000 joints AND you’d have to do it in 20 minutes. It’s more damaging mixed with tobacco, and at its safest when vaporised. Anyone scared of cannabis is ignorant of the facts.
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