Health
The health theme has six modules:
- tobacco and its products
- the health effects of tobacco use
- the global tobacco epidemic
- smoking cessation
- tobacco and young people
- tobacco and social inequalities
Tobacco products may be smoked, sniffed, chewed or sucked. However it is consumed, tobacco harms health.
Tobacco smoke contains more than 4000 toxins, including more than 50 known to cause cancer. Second-hand tobacco smoke contains the same harmful substances.
The health effects of tobacco use
Tobacco use harms health in many ways. Smoking causes many illnesses – more than 20 of which can kill. Smokers are generally in poorer health than non-smokers. On average, smokers die younger than non-smokers.
Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic lung disease. Smoking also has a profound impact on reproductive health.
Smoking harms almost all organs and body systems, even those not in direct contact with tobacco or tobacco smoke.
Secondhand tobacco smoke is also a cause of illness – including fatal illness – in non-smokers.
Children exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems and more severe asthma.
In adults, passive smoking causes immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and is a cause of coronary heart disease and lung cancer.
The global tobacco epidemic
Tobacco use is a global epidemic. Worldwide, 1 in 3 adults is a smoker. And tobacco consumption is increasing: by 2020 the number of smokers worldwide is expected to increase to 1.7 billion.
Tobacco ranks second among the major causes of death worldwide. Tobacco currently kills 5 million people worldwide each year – 1 in 10 of all adult deaths. Mortality from tobacco is also increasing: by 2020 tobacco is expected to cause 10 million deaths worldwide.
Half of all current smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco use - half of these people will die in middle age (35-69 years). In the 20th century, some 100 million people died from tobacco use; by the end of this century, the detah toll is expected to rise to one billion.
The tobacco epidemic is expanding from developed countries to developing countries. Already, half of those dying from tobacco use live in the developing world. By 2020, 7 out of every 10 deaths from tobacco will be in developing countries. Increasingly, the tobacco industry is targeting people in developing countries, in particular young people.
There is a delay of 30-40 years between the peak in smoking prevalence in a country and the peak in deaths from smoking. Many developing countries are currently at an early stage of the tobacco epidemic, so the full impact of smoking on health has not yet been seen.
Tobacco and young people
One in three young people worldwide smokes or has tried a cigarette at some time in their life. Almost one in four of all young smokers worldwide smokes their first cigarette before the age of ten.
Unless urgent action is taken, 250 million children alive today will die from diseases caused by tobacco.
Tobacco and inequalities
Tobacco causes inequalities in health and wealth.
A major reason for the gap in healthy life expectancy between different socioeconomic groups is smoking. This gap is widening.
Tobacco is a cause poverty. In the short-term, money may be spent on tobacco instead of food and other essential needs. Longer term, the main earner in a family may become unable to work because of a tobacco-related illness.
Smoking cessation
If tobacco consumption among adults were halved by the year 2020, some 180 million tobacco-related deaths could be avoided by 2050.
Encouraging adult tobacco users to stop is a key element in reducing tobacco consumption, and is particularly important in developing countries.
Stopping smoking at any age is beneficial to health. No matter how late in life smokers stop, they can reduce their risk of a premature death by quitting.