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Tobacco to kill 5 million people in 2008

Says Union report

BSS, Dhaka
The annual cost of tobacco-related illnesses in Bangladesh attributable to tobacco usage was estimated at Tk 50.9 billion, including Tk 5.8 billion for second-hand smoking, according to a study of World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2007.
The total annual benefit from the tobacco sector was estimated at Tk 24.8 billion from tax revenue and wages in tobacco production. The cost of tobacco usage to the country thus exceeds its benefits by Tk 26.1 billion per annum equivalent to 442 million US dollars.
Initiated by the member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1987, World No Tobacco Day is observed annually on May 31 to raise awareness around the globe about the dangers of tobacco, the single largest preventable cause of disability and death.
Dr Sinad Jones, director of the tobacco control department ofThe Union, highlighted the importance of banning tobacco promotion in every country and said every day some 100,000 young people try tobacco for the first time.
"For tobacco manufacturers, children and young people are future customers," he said adding each year the global tobacco industry spends tens of billions of dollars to glamorise and market deadly products.
Governments must protect their young people by banning all forms of tobacco promotion, he observed.
Dr Nils E Billo, executive director ofThe Union, said tobacco is set to kill more than one billion people in the 21st century, so warning and informing people of the dangers of smoking is a must.
The Union works to prevent and curb threats to lung health, he said adding much has been achieved to curb the epidemic, but governments must still do more, especially in low and middle-income countries, where tobacco use is becoming a leading cause of death.
The Union is the only international voluntary scientific organisation with partners in all regions providing a neutral platform to fight TB, HIV, asthma, tobacco and lung disease.
BSS, Dhaka
Tobacco will kill more than five million people, mostly youths, globally this year superceding the death tolls from tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria, according a report of The Union, a Francebased charity.
The report published on World No Tobacco Day' said the death toll would rise to eight million each year by 2030. This year's theme of the day is 'Tobacco and Youth'.
The burden is growing fastest in low and middle-income countries where 85 percent of world's 1.8 billion young people aged between 10 and 24 live in, it said.
Tobacco use among young people is a major challenge, said the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (IUATLD), which is called The Union in brief.
It said the younger children start to smoke or use tobacco and more likely they are to become regular consumers and the less likely to quit
The Union suggested for imposing ban on tobacco promotion, imposing more taxes, and introducing graphic warning.
In Bangladesh, smoking prevalence was found to be 50 percent among men and 3 percent among women. In addition, 22 percent of men and 39 percent of women use smokeless tobacco in chewable form. Altogether, 62 percent of men and 41 percent of women either smoked or chewed tobacco prod ucts.