FACTS ABOUT SMOKING

FACTS ABOUT SMOKING

According to the WHO World Health Organization], there are more than a million people every year who only die because of cigarette smoking. Worldwide, about 1.35 billion people smoke. The world population statistic in 2009 stood at 6.8 billion meaning almost 20% of the world’s population smokes & 5 million deaths per year in the world caused by cigarette smoking. Around 600,000 people die each year due to second hand smoke. It means in every 6.5 seconds a current or former smoker dies. Nancy Brinker, WHO's Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control: The tobacco use killed 100 million people in the 20th century and threatens to kill 1 billion more in the 21st - more than malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV combined if current smoking trends continue. By the mid-2020s, the WHO predicts, 85% of all smokers will come from the world's poorer countries. If the WHO forecasts are correct, smoking could become the world's biggest killer over the next 20 years, causing more deaths than HIV, tuberculosis, road accidents, murder and suicide put together. According to the organization smoking-related diseases are killing 5 million people a year worldwide and that number will raise to 10 million a year in the next 25 years.