UN warns of 650 million deaths by smoking

Thalif DEEN

UN: Of the more than 1.3 billion smokers alive today, about 650 million will eventually be killed by tobacco, warns a new U.N. report released here.

“Unlike most other causes of death, tobacco kills people during their most productive years,” adds the 19-page study by the U.N. Adhoc Inter-Agency Task Force on Tobacco Control.

The 20-member task force comprises representatives of virtually all the key U.N. agencies and sister organizations, including the World Bank, U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The report, which will go before the upcoming session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Jun. 30 - Jul. 25, points to a recent study that estimated 5.4 million deaths caused by smoking in 2005 alone.

The number of deaths is expected to rise to 8.3 million in 2030, with more than 80 percent occurring in developing countries.

Overall, the share of tobacco-related diseases in the total disease burden worldwide is expected to rise: from 2.6 percent in 1990 to almost 10 percent in 2015, “killing more people than any single disease, including being responsible for 50 percent more deaths than HIV/AIDS.”

As recognised by ECOSOC, tobacco use not only has negative health, social and environmental consequences but also undermines U.N. efforts towards poverty alleviation, the report says.

Tobacco use is linked to a range of serious diseases that include various cancers (lung, trachea, bronchus, mouth, stomach, and oesophagus) cardiovascular (ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease) and respiratory and digestive diseases.

According to survey data gathered from youth aged 13-15 years, prevalence of exposure to tobacco smoke can be above 80 percent in Europe; above 60 percent in the Americas; and around 50 percent in Africa, Southeast Asia, Western Pacific and the Eastern Mediterranean regions. The FAO estimates that while production of tobacco is decreasing in developed countries, it is expanding in the developing world.

In the 1970s, developing countries produced a little under 60 per cent of the world’s tobacco. By 2010, the study predicts, they could be producing more than 80 percent.

“This reflects both the lower cost of production and a marked increase in demand in the developing countries,” it says. Still, the global momentum created by the increasing adherence to the right to enjoy smoke-free air has resulted in an increasing number of countries (such as Bhutan, Estonia, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Uganda and Uruguay) implementing smoke-free air laws. And a U.N. survey on smoking bans shows “encouraging results, with the majority of U.N. premises already smoke-free.”

However, although most U.N. agencies work in a smoke-free environment, the Secretariat in New York is yet to impose a total ban on smoking in its 39-storeyed building.

A resolution adopted by ECOSOC in July 2006 recommended that the General Assembly, at is 61st session in 2007, consider the implementation of “a complete ban on smoking at all United Nations indoor premises, at Headquarters as well as at regional and country offices throughout the U.N. system.”

The resolution also called for the implementation of “a complete ban on sales of tobacco products at all U.N. premises.” But no action was taken by the General Assembly.

The report reiterates its request to the General Assembly to consider this matter at its 63rd session in September this year.

Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International, says that banning smoking on the premises of the United Nations would protect the health of workers, diplomats and visitors, and demonstrate the U.N.’s recognition of the dangers of tobacco smoke.

However, she pointed out, the United Nations has at its fingertips an instrument with even greater power: the global tobacco treaty. Formally known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, it is one of the most widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations.

“It now protects 80 percent of the world’s people in more than 150 countries, with legally binding measures like a ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and an obligation to insulate public health policy from tobacco industry interference,” Mulvey told IPS.

All arms of the United Nations can do more to support the WHO in implementing this groundbreaking treaty, she added.

Inter Press Service