7.68 Million People Die From Smoking: China Ranks First, Indonesia Fifth
JAKARTA - At least 7.69 million people died from various diseases caused by smoking, the research team said earlier this year, but has not yet counted deaths from cigarette smoke.
Launching Kyodo News August 15, an international research team found that in 2019, the number of smokers in the world reached 1.1 billion people, with the number of cigarettes consumed per year reaching 7 trillion cigarettes, in a study published in the medical journal 'Lancet' published in England.
China accounted for the largest number of deaths with about 2.42 million people, nearly 30 percent of the world total, followed by India at 1.01 million, the United States at 530,000, Russia at 290,000, Indonesia at 250,000 and Japan with about 200,000 deaths.
Japan's death toll was the sixth highest in the study, which analyzed data from more than 3,000 health surveys covering more than 200 countries and territories.
Although smoking rates are on a downward trend in developed countries, the number of smokers is increasing in developing countries including Africa, where the population is growing rapidly.
The most common diseases that directly cause death among smokers are ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and stroke.
Smoking is known to increase the risk of developing this disease. However, it should be emphasized that these estimates do not include health damage caused by cigarette smoke.
The team also found that 87 percent of deaths occurred in people who continued to smoke, and only 6 percent were people who had quit smoking more than 15 years before their death, indicating the effectiveness of quitting smoking.
Because the tobacco industry has developed marketing strategies targeting young people, to promote items such as flavored cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
The team said banning the sale of the product would help reduce the number of young smokers, and called for measures such as imposing higher tobacco taxes and advertising restrictions.