Tobacco use major cause of cardiovascular diseases: WHO

GENEVA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure are major causes of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and stroke, contributing to approximately 3e million deaths per year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday, the World No Tobacco Day.

According to a new WHO report, entitled Global Report on Trends in Prevalence of Tobacco Smoking 2000-2025, though tobacco use has declined markedly since 2000, the reduction is insufficient to meet globally agreed targets aimed at protecting people from death and suffering from cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The link between tobacco and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the world's leading causes of death, responsible for 44 percent of all NCD deaths, or 17.9 million deaths annually, the report said. But evidence reveals a serious lack of knowledge of the multiple health risks associated with tobacco.

"Most people know that using tobacco causes cancer and lung disease, but many people aren't aware that tobacco also causes heart disease and stroke -- the world's leading killers," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "This World No Tobacco Day, WHO is drawing attention to the fact that tobacco doesn't just cause cancer, it quite literally breaks hearts."

In many countries, this low awareness is substantial.

"Governments have the power in their hands to protect their citizens from suffering needlessly from heart disease," says Dr. Douglas Bettcher, WHO director for the Prevention of NCDs. "Measures that reduce the risks to heart health posed by tobacco include making all indoor public and workplaces completely smoke-free and promoting use of tobacco package warnings that demonstrate the health risks of tobacco."

Despite the steady reduction in tobacco use globally, the pace of action in reducing tobacco demand and related death and disease is lagging behind global and national commitments to reduce tobacco use by 30 percent by 2025 among people aged 15 and older. If the trend continues on the current trajectory, the world will only achieve a 22 percent reduction by 2025, the report warns.

Currently over half of all WHO member states have reduced demand for tobacco, and almost one in eight are likely to meet the 30 percent reduction target by 2025. But over 80 percent of tobacco smokers live in low- and middle-income countries, where prevalence of smoking is decreasing more slowly than in high-income countries, while the number of smokers is on the increase in low-income countries.

"We must overcome obstacles to implementing measures like taxation, marketing bans and implementing plain packaging. Our best chance of success is through global unity and strong multi-sectoral action against the tobacco industry," said Dr. Svetlana Axelrod, WHO's assistant director-general for NCDs and mental health. Enditem