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WHO warns of billion deaths from tobacco

NEW YORK: The “tobacco epidemic” killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill a billion people in the 21st century unless governments act now to reduce tobacco use dramatically, the World Health Organisation said in a report released on Thursday.

It estimates that India has the second largest number of smokers in the world, after China.

Governments around the world collect more than $200 billion in tobacco taxes every year but spend less than a fifth of 1 per cent of that revenue on tobacco control, it said. “We hold in our hands the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of one billion men, women and children during this century,” Director-General Margaret Chan said in an introduction. “The cure for this devastating epidemic is dependent not on medicines or vaccines, but on the concerted actions of government and civil society.”

The WHO Report, Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008, calls on all countries to increase efforts to prevent young people from beginning to smoke, help smokers quit, and protect non-smokers from exposure to second-hand smoke. — AP

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