Mumbai, March 09: Tobacco will kill six million people annually by next year and drain an estimated USD 500 billion from the world economy with the industry shifting focus to poor countries that have less effective public health policies, according to Tobacco Atlas launched today.
The economic costs come as a result of lost productivity, misused resources, ineffective taxation and premature death, revealed the third edition of Tobacco Atlas.
"Because 25 per cent of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income loss devastates families and communities," its author Hana Ross said.
The burden has shifted to world's poorest countries. "Tobacco industry has shifted its marketing and sales efforts to countries that have less effective public health policies and fewer resources and by 2010, tobacco will kill six million people worldwide annually," said the special advisor at World Lung Foundation Judith Mackey.
World Lung foundation jointly with American Cancer society (ACS) prepared the Atlas.
Since 1960, global tobacco production has increased 300 per cent in low and middle-resource countries while dropping more that 50 per cent in high-resource countries.
The Atlas is crucial to understanding the nature of the most preventable global health epidemic, the authors said.
John R. Seffrin, CEO of ACS said in Bangladesh alone, if the average household bought food with the money normally spent on tobacco, more than 10 million people would no longer suffer from malnutrition and 350 children under age five could be saved each day.
The Atlas also pointed out that the cigarettes are the world's most widely smuggled legal consumer product. In 2006, about 600 billion smuggled cigarettes made it to the market, representing an enormous missed tax opportunity for governments, as well as a missed opportunity to prevent many people from starting to smoke and encourage others to quit.
"A ten per cent increase in prices reduces demand by up to five per cent among adults, with even better results among young smokers," the authors said.
The Atlas also pointed out that tobacco replaces potential food production on almost four million hectares of the world's agricultural land, equal to all of the world's orange groves or banana plantations.
Bureau Report