Tobacco
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Key facts
- Tobacco kills up to half of its users.
- Tobacco kills more than seven million people each year. More than six million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 890,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
- Around 80% of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
Leading cause of death, illness and impoverishment
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 7 million people a year. More than six million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 890,000 are the result of non-smokers, being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Around 80% of the 1.1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.
Tobacco users who die prematurely deprive their families of income, raise the cost of health care and hinder economic development.
In s...
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