Geneva, 15 mar (EFE).-the number of people in the world who benefit from some measure of the fight against tobacco has increased by 1.1 billion in the past two years, but these efforts have been largely offset by the advertising and promotion of cigarette which finances the tobacco industry.
So reveals it a study prepared by the World Health Organization (who) focused on the impact of the framework Convention against tobacco in force since 2005, and released today in Geneva.
With an eye on world day against tobacco, which is celebrated every May 31 and which this year will focus on the “interference” of the industry in international efforts to reduce tobacco use, the document offers an encouraging progress image, but at the same time recognizes that “the epidemic continues to expand”.
The main reasons, explains, it is advertising, sponsorship and promotion that makes directly or indirectly the tobacco industry, the growth of the population in countries where tobacco use is increasing and extremely difficult is to stop smoking because the high addictive tobacco.
Who bet in the report highlight the surge of people covered by one or more control measures anti-smoking advocates the Convention and currently totaling 3.8 billion of beneficiaries (55% of the global population).
However, three quarters of those people really benefited from single anti-smoking measure, which tends to be the labelling of packs of cigarettes with warnings (in text or graphics) of the health risks involved in smoking.
Thus, only slightly more than 1 billion people are protected by two or more anti-tobacco measures implemented rigorously.
Progress has been notable in the past two years, period in which thirty countries introduced at least one measure against tobacco in their legislation, involving 1,100 million people.
In financial terms, the report reveals significant progress to increase the revenues generated by tobacco taxes have become, but regrets that this is not reflected nowhere in the financing of activities aimed at reducing its consumption.
Currently, according to the who, Governments collect approximately 133,000 $ million for rates to tobacco, but spent less than a billion in trying to control its use, a deficit that is most evident in middle-income countries low- and middle-income.
Most commonly used strategies and they have both proved to be effective are large packets graphics, as well as the campaigns of awareness through the media, which often impact on smokers and encourage them to stop being so strong.
Smoking is responsible for the death of six million people annually, including 360,000 non-smokers, but who are exposed to smoke.
According to the projections of the Health Organization, the probability that more than half of the 1,000 million consumers of tobacco die from smoking-related causes is high. EFE
