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Study Shows Tobacco Kills Millions a Year [02 /26-1]

Excerpts from: Study: Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs Kill 7 Million a Year

Source: Reuters [02 /26/03]

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) - Tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs prematurely kill about 7 million people worldwide each year and the number is rising, according to a study released in Australia on Tuesday.

Professor Juergen Rehm, director of Switzerland's Addiction Research Institute, said in the Australian capital Canberra the global burden of disease resulting from smoking, drinking and taking drugs was huge.

"One reason for this is increased worldwide exposure to these substances, especially in the highly populated emerging economies of Southeast Asia and China," Rehm told Reuters before presenting his study to an international drug-research symposium in Perth.

"Another is that the relative share of diseases associated with substance abuse, such as chronic disease, accidents and injuries, as well as HIV and hepatitis, are predicted to increase."

Rehm said tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs were responsible for about 8.9 percent of the total global burden of disease in the year 2000, with his study building on some research he conducted for the World Health Organization last year.

He said tobacco was the number one killer addiction in 2000, responsible for 4.9 million deaths or 71 percent of the total drug-related deaths -- a jump of more than one million since 1990.

The rise was most marked in developing nations although most smoking-related diseases were found in industrialized countries.

About 1.8 million deaths were attributable to the use of alcohol, about 26 percent of all drug-related deaths, with the proportion greatest in the Americas and Europe. Russia's alcohol problem was particularly pronounced.

Illicit drugs caused about 223,000 deaths, or three percent of all drug-related deaths.

"The most surprising finding from this research is that alcohol has become the number one risk factor in developing countries with emerging economies like China and Thailand over the past decade, above tobacco," Rehm said.

Rehm said although the outlook seemed bleak, he hoped his research could be used by governments to formulate policies to combat the preventable deaths and disease.

He said increasing taxes on alcohol and tobacco had proved to be a more effective way to reduce drinking and smoking, and resulting disease, than treatment or health care intervention.