WHO warns: tobacco remains the greatest health risk for humanity!

WHO warns: tobacco remains the greatest health risk for humanity!

Vienna, Österreich - worldwide the proportion of tobacco users will drop! The World Health Organization (WHO) reports on an impressive decline of one third over the past two decades. Adriana Blanco Marquizo, the head of the secretariat of the WHO framework convention on tobacco control, proudly announces: "This saved millions of life." This is done as part of the 20th anniversary of the FCTC contract, which currently includes 183 countries, including Germany. The contract aims to drastically reduce tobacco consumption through measures such as the ban on advertising and sponsorship as well as fighting illegal trade.

devastating costs and environmental damage

tobacco consumption is a serious health risk. According to WHO, around seven million people die directly from tobacco and another 1.3 million in the consequences of passive smoking every year. This leads to enormous costs that amount to around $ 1.4 trillion annually if treatments and production failures are taken into account. In addition, the cultivation of tobacco is classified as environmentally harmful: around 600 million trees are used every year, 22 billion tons of water are consumed, and almost 80 million tons of CO2 are released, such as Tagesspiegel reported.

The WHO emphasizes that alternative products such as e-cigarettes do not represent a solution, since they also contain harmful substances. WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls Tabak a "plague of humanity" and points out that it is the leading cause of avoidable deaths and illnesses. Germany is recommended to further increase the tobacco taxes, since it is considered one of the most effective methods for containing consumption, such as vienna.at .