The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 60 million people died from smoking-related diseases between 1950 and 2000, more than the number of deaths caused by World War II.
Since 2005, according to the Public Health Treaty within the scope of the "World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC)", efforts have been carried out to minimize the harms caused by smoking. Within the scope of this convention, WHO has developed the 'MPOWER (Monitor, Protect, Offer, Warn, Enforce, Raise Criteria - National Committee on Smoking and Health)' implementation package prepared according to the WHO-FCTC criteria to control smoking worldwide. Today, approximately 3.9 billion people living in 91 countries, including Turkey, benefit from the practices in this package.
In 2009, the "Tobacco Control Act" came into force, authorizing the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products. At the time of enactment, it was noted that tobacco products were the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States. The FDA has also enacted restrictions on youth access and restrictions on labeling and advertising to help reduce the appeal of tobacco products to youth, noting that the advertising, marketing, and promotion of tobacco products are “specifically directed at attracting youth to use tobacco products, and these efforts have resulted in increased youth use of such products."
Traditional cigarettes are the most widely used tobacco product and traditional cigarette smoke contains over 6,000 chemicals, more than 150 of which are classified as harmful and potentially harmful. For this reason, traditional cigarettes cause serious health problems even in people who do not smoke but are exposed to cigarette smoke. These problems include heart attacks, other cardiovascular diseases, various cancers (lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, laryngeal, and breast cancer, etc.), respiratory system diseases, circulatory system diseases, vascular diseases and hypertension.
Smoking is one of the biggest public health threats the world faces, killing more than 8 million people a year. More than 7 million of these deaths are directly attributable to smoking, while around 1 million are due to passive exposure to smoke by non-smokers. At the current rate, this number is projected to double by 2030.
Smoking rates vary across countries and regions. Recent studies have shown that 84% of traditional smokers are in developing countries. Gender and age-related differences in smoking have also been observed. In both sexes, the age-specific prevalence of cigarette use has shown a steady increase in the 45+ age group, with the highest rates in the 45-54 age group for men and the 55-64 age group for women.
- Türkiye Halk Sağlığı ve Kronik Hastalıklar Enstitüsü (TÜSEB-TÜHKE). 25.05.2021. https://www.tuseb.gov.tr/tuhke/uploads/genel/files/dunya_tutunsuz_gunu.pdf
- WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2025, fourth edition. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.