Tobacco kills seven million people, gulps $1.4 trillion annually – WHO

Tobacco use kills more than seven million people annually and costs over $1.4 trillion in healthcare expenditure and lost productivity, the World Health Organisation, WHO, says.   

The Director-General of WHO, Margaret Chan, gave the assessment ahead of World No Tobacco Day, marked annually on May 31, and which targets the threats tobacco poses to global development worldwide

The UN health agency warned that tobacco’s killer toxins also wreak havoc on the environment.

Stamping out tobacco use can save millions of lives and combat poverty, WHO said, spotlighting for the first time the ways in which tobacco affects human well-being from an environmental perspective caused by production, distribution and waste.

“Tobacco threatens us all. Tobacco exacerbates poverty, reduces economic productivity, contributes to poor household food choices and pollutes indoor air,” the WHO chief warned.