New Delhi:
According to a recent study, over 50 percent deaths caused due to smoking in 2015 took place majorly in four countries and India is one of them. 2015 was a year cursed by smoking due to which more than 1 in 10 lives globally plunged into the darkness of death.
According to Global Burden of Disease's (GBD) recent publication in a medical journal named 'The Lancet', over 11 percent of 6.4 million deaths worldwide was caused due to smoke in a extreme level. China, India, USA and Russia are the most affected countries, the study says further.
China, India, and Indonesia, the three leading countrieswith male smokers, accounted for 51.4 per cent of the world'smale smokers in 2015.
India has 11.2 per cent of the world's total smokers. Deaths attributable to smoking increased by 4.7 per centin 2015 compared with 2005 and smoking was rated as a biggerburden on health ?
Moving from third to second highest cause of disability, the study said, "In 2015, 11.5 percent of global deaths (6.4 million)were attributable to smoking worldwide, of which 52.2 per centtook place in four countries - China, India, the USA, andRussia)," the study said.
The estimates are based on smoking habits in 195 countriesand territories between 1990 and 2015, and illustrate thatsmoking remains a leading risk factor for death anddisability.
The study said that with growing and ageing populationsalready heightening the burden of tobacco, it will be crucialto support more smokers in quitting and stopping people fromstarting to smoke.
"The USA, China and India, which were the leading threecountries in total number of female smokers, accounted foronly 27.3 per cent of the world's female smokers," it said.
While Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines did nothave significant reductions in male prevalence of dailysmoking since 1990, the Philippines, Germany, and India had nosignificant decreases in smoking among women.
The authors of the study warned the war against tobacco isfar from won, and argued that despite implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, policymakers need to make renewed and sustained efforts to tackleit.
Worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, smoking prevalencedecreased by almost a third-- from 29.4 per cent to 15.3 percent-- and presently one in four men (25 per cent) worldwidesmoke, as do one in nearly 20 women (5.4 per cent). Despite these improvements, population growth has led toan increase in the overall number of smokers from 870.4 million in 1990 to 933.1 million in 2015, the study said.
The study said Pakistan, Panama and India stand out asthree countries that have implemented a large number oftobacco control policies over the past decade and recordedmarked declines in the prevalence of daily smoking since 2005,compared with decreases recorded between 1990 and 2005.
The study said the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control(FCTC), is necessary and vital for creating policy environmentfor more effective tobacco control worldwide but in not enoughto fully address each country's tobacco-control needs.
The nations will need to both implement FCTC-stipulatedmeasures and supplement such policies and programmes withstrong enforcement and high rates of compliance, it said.
"For example, India, where 11?2 per cent of the world'ssmokers live, supplemented the Cigarettes and Other TobaccoProducts Act (COTPA) with the creation of a National TobaccoControl Programme (NTCP) in 2007.
"NTCP was created to strengthen implementation andenforcement of the various provisions of COTPA at the stateand district level. It has been rolled out in phases andcurrently covers about 40 per cent of all districts in India,"the study said.
The 10 countries with the largest number of smokers in 2015 were China, India, Indonesia, USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Brazil, Germany and the Philippines. Together they accounted for almost two-thirds of theworlds smokers (63.6 per cent), the study said.
"Despite more than half a century of unequivocal evidenceof the harmful effects of tobacco on health, today, one inevery four men in the world is a daily smoker.
A senior author Emmanuela Gakidou from the University of Washington said, smoking, being the second largest risk factor for early death may also cause disability and so we should must intensify tobacco control to further reduce its impact.
