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FACTS for World No Tobacco Day, 2011

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en_tfi_wntd_2011_poster_31031 May is World No Tobacco Day

VIET NAM FACTS:

  • Tobacco related illnesses are a leading cause of death in Viet Nam with 40,000 people dying each year, more than a hundred people per day.
  • Viet Nam is among the countries with the highest male smoking rates in the world: 47.4% of the adult men smoke (GATS 2010).
  • WHO estimates that half of those who smoke regularly will be killed by tobacco related disease.
  • The production of cigarettes in Viet Nam rose steadily from 2000.  At the current tax rate when a cigarette pack is sold to smokers the tax accounts for less than 45% of the retailed price, as opposed to up to 80% under World Bank recommendations.
  • The average price of the cigarette packs is only 5,500 VND (about 0.29 cents) making Viet Nam once of the cheapest countries to buy cigarettes.  The recent GATS survey found that 73% of adults say they support tobacco tax increase (GATS 2010).
  • Among adult non-smokers 67% are exposed to tobacco smoke at home and 49% at workplaces (GATS 2010).

REGIONAL FACTS:

  • Tobacco use is one of the biggest contributors to the epidemic of noncommunicable disease in the Western Pacific Region.
  • The Western Pacific Region has:

o   the greatest number of smokers

o   the highest rates of male smoking prevalence

o   the fastest increase in tobacco uptake by women and young people.

  • One in three cigarettes consumed globally is smoked in the Western Pacific Region.
  • Each stick of cigarette contains over 7000 chemicals of which 70 are known carcinogens.
  • It is estimated that two people die each minute from tobacco-related disease in the Region.
  • In most countries, it is estimated that half of men smoke and half of all women are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke at home and in public places.
  • More than 50% of young people aged 13 to 15 are exposed to
    second–hand smoke at home, and 64% are exposed to second–hand smoke in public places. Passive or second-hand exposure to tobacco smoke causes an estimated 600,000 deaths a year globally.
  • Tobacco causes over 20 different diseases, many of them fatal or disabling. It is responsible for over 71% of all cases of lung cancer deaths globally, 42% of chronic respiratory disease deaths and nearly 10% of all deaths from cardiovascular disease.
  • The scourge of tobacco use is entirely preventable.
  • In the past, traditional public health methods for reducing tobacco use, such as individual interventions by health professionals, was no match for the tobacco industry's power, transnational reach, formidable resources and active promotion of tobacco use.
  • The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was developed in response to globalization of the tobacco epidemic and represents a new approach in international health cooperation, using a global legal framework to address a globalized epidemic.
  • The WHO FCTC is the first international treaty developed under the auspices of WHO to reduce the health and economic burden of tobacco use.
  • The WHO FCTC calls for banning of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, providing health warnings, banning sale to minors, protecting people against exposure to second-hand smoke, raising prices and taxes, and other measures to regulate tobacco use.
  • Full implementation of the WHO FCTC will save millions of lives of people who would otherwise die prematurely in their productive years.
  • Full implementation of the WHO FCTC will also save billions of dollars that would otherwise be lost through medical expenditures on tobacco-related disease and/or losses in productivity of workers.
  • Unchecked, the tobacco epidemic could undermine other public health gains as well as hamper economic growth and development in the Region.
  • The biggest barrier to enactment and enforcement of national laws that are consistent with the WHO FCTC is interference of the tobacco industry in public health policy-making.  Vigilance and concerted action by governments, civil society and communities are needed to stop this and enable full implementation of the treaty.

Tobacco's toll on human life

  • The tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of whom more than 5 million are users and ex–users; more than 600 000 are nonsmokers exposed to second–hand smoke.
  • After high blood pressure, tobacco use is the biggest contributor to the epidemic of non-communicable diseases–such as heart attack, stroke, cancer and emphysema–which accounts for 63% of deaths globally.
  • Tobacco causes over 20 different diseases, many of them fatal or disabling. It is responsible for over 71% of all cases of lung cancer deaths globally, 42% of chronic respiratory disease deaths and nearly 10% of all deaths from cardiovascular disease.
  • Smokers are more susceptible to certain communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and pneumonia.
  • No consumer product kills as many people, and as needlessly, as does tobacco.  It killed 100 million people in the 20th century.  Unless we act, it could kill up to 1 billion people in the 21st century.  All of these deaths will have been entirely preventable.

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