PHA-Exchange> Tobacco could kill 1 billion this century if current trends hold

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/07/10/tobacco.cancer.ap/index.html

> Tobacco could kill 1 billion this century if current trends hold

> WASHINGTON (AP) -- If current trends hold, tobacco will kill a billion 
> people this century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century, public 
> health officials said Monday.
>
> Tobacco accounts for one in five cancer deaths, or 1.4 million deaths 
> worldwide each year, according to two new reference guides that chart 
> global tobacco use and cancer. Lung cancer remains the major cancer among 
> the 10.9 million new cases of cancer diagnosed each year, according to the 
> Cancer Atlas.
>
> Reducing tobacco use would have the greatest affect on global cancer 
> rates, health officials said. Improving nutrition and reducing infection 
> by cancer-causing viruses and bacteria could also cut rates dramatically, 
> they said.
>
> We know with cancer, if we take action now, we can save 2 million lives a 
> year by 2020 and 6.5 million by 2040.
>
> The new Cancer Atlas and updated Tobacco Atlas were released Monday at an 
> International Union Against Cancer conference.

> An estimated 1.25 billion men and women smoke cigarettes now, according to 
> the Tobacco Atlas.
>