 Smoking Hurts Mainly the Poor, says WHO
People spend more for tobacco than food
MANILA
The poor are the biggest victims of the tobacco industry, spending the money they desperately need for necessities on something that endangers their health, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
In a report released ahead of the May 31 observance of World No Tobacco Day, the WHO said studies found that the poor tend to smoke the most. Of the estimated 1.3 billion smokers worldwide, 84 percent live in developing countries.
It warned about the vicious circle between tobacco and poverty, with expenditure on cigarettes often exceeding that spent on food, health, or education.
Even in developed countries, it is the lower classes who consume the most tobacco and who bear most of the economic and health burden of smoking, the report entitled A Vicious Cycle said. It cited a study showing that the highest rate of smoking prevalence in Madras, India was found among illiterate men. In Egypt, tobacco use accounts for 10 percent of spending by poor households, while in Bangladesh, 10 times more is spent on smoking than on education.
A study in three provinces in Vietnam found that smokers spend 3.6 times more on tobacco than they do on education, 2.5 times more than they do on clothes, and 1.9 times more than they spend on health care.
Poor rural households in southwest China spend over 11 percent of their total expenses on cigarettes while in Indonesia, the lowest income group spends 15 percent of total expenses on tobacco. Smokers make up about 36 percent or 350 million people of China's total population, according to the new study published by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
People with less education tend to spend more on cigarettes, WHO said. A study in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found a smoking prevalence of 26 percent among people with lower than four years of studies, compared with 17 percent among those with nine or more years of schooling.
In addition, poor people use a higher percentage of their household income on satisfying cravings for nicotine, WHO said. Some 10.5 million malnourished people in Bangladesh, for example, would have a sufficient diet if two-thirds of the money wasted on tobacco in the country were spent on food instead.
Lack of information on healthy living, coupled with successful advertising campaigns by the tobacco industry and addiction to nicotine, prompts poor people to spend what little money they have on cigarettes, WHO said.
MORE HARM THAN GOOD
And despite industry claims that tobacco provides vital employment benefits for the developing world, tobacco farmers are exploited, the organization argued.
While growing tobacco is suppose to help farmers, the WHO charged that small-scale tobacco farmers were barely making a living and that tobacco cultivation placed workers at risk of injury and illness. It cited the danger of green tobacco sickness: the absorption of nicotine through the skin from wet tobacco leaves, causing nausea, vomiting, and even fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rates
The use of pesticides to protect tobacco plants also brought illness to growers, the WHO said. It said tobacco companies often operate on a contract system where they provide seeds and agricultural supplies to farmers WHO are then obliged to sell their produce at set prices. This leaves farmers helpless, and forced to accept whatever prices are offered to them.
Even the countries that grow tobacco are harmed more than they are helped by the product due to high health-care costs and lowered productivity, the WHO said.
It said that China loses US$6.5 billion a year in direct and indirect costs of smoking and said that this figure is "sure to skyrocket," with an estimated three million people in China expected to die from smoking by the middle of this century.
Tobacco imports resulted in foreign-exchange losses for many countries and the cultivation of tobacco-including the burning of wood to cure tobacco, resulted in the deforestation of 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of woodlands each year, the WHO charged.
In contrast, cigarette giants Japan Tobacco, Philip Morris/Altria and British American Tobacco enjoyed combined revenues of US$121 billion in 2002-greater than the total gross domestic product of a list of 27 poor countries that include Jordan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
On a country basis, smoking increases poverty levels by raising health costs, crippling members of the work force, and harming the environment.
ONE DEATH EVERY 6.5 SECONDS
Saying smoking inflames poverty in poor countries as people sacrifice food and education for cigarettes, the WHO urged governments to implement stricter tobacco rules.
"Every 6.5 seconds one person dies and many others fall ill or suffer diseases and disability due to tobacco use," WHO chief Lee Jong-wook said. "This is occurring mostly in developing countries, adding significantly to their burden of disease and poverty," he warned. "The world cannot accept such easily preventable human and economic losses."
The health body urged governments to sign the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco, which was adopted last year to reduce consumption by offering provisions on several issues such as advertising, labeling, and tax and price increases. To date, 118 of 192 WHO member-states have signed the treaty-the signature period is open until June 29-and 12 countries have ratified it, but 40 ratifications are required to bring the framework into force.
"We will need enthusiasm, persistence, and political commitment to ensure that the convention enters into force and is implemented within countries," said Lee. "By helping to control the tobacco epidemic we will be contributing to higher standards of living and health worldwide."
An estimated five million people a year-most of them poor-die from diseases linked to tobacco, according to WHO, adding that 84 percent of the world's smokers are from developing countries. The WHO estimates the global death toll from smoking will double to 10 million in 2030, if the increase in the use of tobacco continues unabated.
With the number of smokers seen rising from 1.3 billion people to 1.7 billion in 2025, about 650 million people alive today will be killed by tobacco if current trends persist, WHO said.
AFP
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