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Monday, July 10, 2006
Tobacco May Kill 1 Billion This Century
WASHINGTON (AP) - If current trends hold, tobacco will kill a billion
people this century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century,
public health officials said Monday.
Tobacco accounts for one in five cancer deaths, or 1.4 million deaths
worldwide each year, according to two new reference guides that chart
global tobacco use and cancer. Lung cancer remains the major cancer
among the 10.9 million new cases of cancer diagnosed each year, according
to the Cancer Atlas.
Reducing tobacco use would have the greatest affect on global cancer
rates, health officials said. Improving nutrition and reducing infection
by cancer-causing viruses and bacteria could also cut rates dramatically,
they said.
``We know with cancer, if we take action now, we can save 2 million
lives a year by 2020 and 6.5 million by 2040,'' said Dr. Judith Mackay,
a World Health Organization senior policy adviser.
The new Cancer Atlas and updated Tobacco Atlas were released Monday
at a International Union Against Cancer conference. The American Cancer
Society published the two atlases with help from the Union, WHO and
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
``Even if smoking rates decline worldwide, there will be a constant
or even slightly increasing number of smokers due to population increases,''
said Michael Eriksen, director of the Institute of Public Health at
Georgia State University.
An estimated 1.25 billion men and women smoke cigarettes now, according
to the Tobacco Atlas.
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