By Dr. Joseph D. Lim
On May 31, people celebrate World No Tobacco Day.
It brings upfront the fact that tobacco kills more than eight million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Around 80 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries, says the United Nations health agency.
In 2020, 22.3 percent of the world’s population used tobacco: 36.7 percent of men and 7.8 percent of women.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing over eight million people a year around the world, the WHO warns.
More than seven million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.3 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
“All forms of tobacco use are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco,” it says.
Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide. Other tobacco products include waterpipe tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, heated tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis and kreteks, and smokeless tobacco products.
Around 80 percent of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.
Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco. “This spending behavior is difficult to curb because tobacco is so addictive,” the WHO says.
The economic costs of tobacco use are substantial and include significant health care costs for treating the diseases caused by tobacco use as well as the lost human capital that results from tobacco-attributable diseases and deaths.
Second-hand smoke also kills. It is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices, homes, or other enclosed spaces when people smoke tobacco products. There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
Second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer, and kills around 1.3 million people prematurely every year.
The scale of the human and economic tragedy that tobacco imposes is “shocking, and also preventable,” the UN health agency warns.
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim, Ed. D., is the former Associate Dean of the College of Dentistry, University of the East; former Dean, College of Dentistry, National University; Past President and Honorary Fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy; Honorary Fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists; Honorary Life Member of the Thai Association of Dental Implantology; and Founding Chairman of the Philippine College of Oral Implantologists. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515.
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Dr. Kenneth Lester Lim, BS-MMG, DDM, MSc-OI, graduated Doctor of Dental Medicine, University of the Philippines, College of Dentistry, Manila, 2011; Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management, De La Salle University, Manila, 2002; and Master of Science (MSc.) in Oral Implantology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, 2019. He is an Associate Professor; Fellow, International Congress of Oral Implantologists; and Fellow, Philippine College of Oral Implantologists. For questions on dental health, e-mail limdentalcenter@gmail.com/WDJ