WHO: tobacco to kill nearly 6 million people in 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tobacco will kill nearly 6 million people this year, including 600,000 non-smokers, because governments are not doing enough to persuade people to quit or protect others from second-hand smoke, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Since there is often a lag of many years between when people start smoking and when it affects health, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun, the WHO said. But by 2030, the annual death toll could reach 8 million.

Tobacco kills up to half its users. It is described by the WHO as "one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced". It causes lung cancer, which is often fatal, and other chronic respiratory diseases. It is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the world's number one killers.

The WHO said smoking is one of the biggest contributors to a worldwide epidemic of non-communicable, or chronic, diseases such as heart attack, stroke, cancer and emphysema, which accounts for 63 percent of all deaths worldwide, nearly 80 percent of which occur in poorer countries.