Smoking kills more people each year than shark deaths, hypothermia, murder, suicide, drowning, death on the roads, industrial accidents, prescription and illegal drugs, tuberculosis and AIDS combined, and more than twice as many as alcohol. There is no other consumer product or risk factor that remotely resembles this degree of risk.
3,200 people die in Hong Kong annually from air pollution versus 7,000 from tobacco related diseases of which 23% are passive smokers.
Is there a priority here ?
Million
Tobacco 6
Alcohol 2.5
HIV/AIDS 1.7
TB 1.4
Road 1.3
2013:
Tobacco
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/index.html
6 million
Tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, of whom more than 5 million are users and ex users and more than 600 000 are
non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke.
Unless urgent action is taken, the annual death toll could rise to more than eight million by 2030.
AIDS
WHO http://www.who.int/gho/hiv/en/
1.7 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses worldwide in 2011
TB
WHO http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/
1.4 million died from TB in 2011.
Road deaths
WHO http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/en/
1.3 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes.
Alcohol WHO http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs349/en/index.html
2.5 million deaths each year.
USA American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/cigarettesmoking/cigarette-smoking-who-and-how-affects-health Accessed 22 February 2013
About half of all Americans who keep smoking will die because of the habit.
Smoking cigarettes kills more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.
Published on South China Morning Post (http://www.scmp.com)
Home > Make Hong Kong more family-friendly says women’s survey
Submitted by admin on Feb 23rd 2013, 12:00am
Business
LAI SEE
Howard Winn howard.winn@scmp.com
Living dangerously
A few more reasons why the dangers of smoking should be taken seriously: tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, of whom more than 5 million are users and ex-users and more than 600 000 are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. Unless urgent action is taken, the annual death toll could rise to more than eight million by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation.
Smoking kills more people each year than shark deaths, hypothermia, murder, suicide, drowning, death on the roads (1.3 million), industrial accidents, prescription and illegal drugs, tuberculosis (1.4 million) and HIV/Aids (1.7 million) combined, and more than twice as many as alcohol. There is no other consumer product or risk factor that remotely resembles this degree of risk. According to the American Cancer Organisation about half of all Americans who keep smoking will die because of the habit.
Source URL (retrieved on Feb 23rd 2013, 7:27am): http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1156581/make-hong-kong-more-family-friendly-says-womens-survey