Tobacco kills one life every six seconds. Every year, smoking causes the death of 5.4 million people. If you do not take decisive measures, by 2030 this figure will grow to eight million. In the 21 century nearly a billion people could die of tobacco who could not overcome their addiction to cigarettes, snuff, hookah, cigars and pipes. Smoking in all its forms remains a major preventable cause of death worldwide. Tobacco kills from one third to one half of the people who regularly consume for 15 years according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday in New York. The report highlights that the majority of smokers want to quit, but can not. Its authors note that the number of victims of the tobacco epidemic exceeds the number of victims of any infectious disease. In spite of this sad statistic, any country in the world does not fully complied with international requirements, which were approved the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It came into effect on 27 February, 2005. The Convention obliges Parties to completely prohibit the advertising of tobacco products, raise prices and taxes on production and sale of tobacco products and to introduce measures to protect non-smokers. It prohibits smoking in public places. In accordance with convention, labels containing health warnings should occupy half of the area of tobacco product pack. The report states that only 5 percent of the world’s population lives in countries that have fully implemented at least one of the measures aimed at reducing smoking, and adopted comprehensive national laws. 40% percent of countries in the world still allow smoking in hospitals and schools. Revenue governments from taxes on tobacco are on average 5,000 times more means than they spend on fight with it.
Today, WHO has proposed six key strategies aimed at turning the tobacco back. They relate to tobacco control and smoking prevention policies; people protection from tobacco smoke; aiding smokers who want to quit the habit; warning people about the dangers of smoking; a ban on cigarette advertising; increase tobacco taxes. “These six strategies that can be implemented by the poor and rich countries if they joined together, give us a chance to stop the growing epidemic,” – said on Thursday, WHO Director General Margaret Chan at a press conference in New York, which she held together with the mayor of this city Michael Bloomberg. He provided financial support in preparing this report.

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