Tobacco Use Kills 6 Million People Annually: Report [Hun Xen like smoking, will he die soon?]

And costs the global economy $500 billion each year

TUESDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Tobacco use kills an estimated six million people worldwide each year and drains $500 billion annually from the global economy in lost productivity, misused resources, and premature deaths.

That assessment comes from The Tobacco Atlas, Third Edition, published by the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation and released Tuesday at the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, Ireland.

What's more, illnesses and deaths from tobacco use are totally preventable through such "well-established public policies" as tobacco taxes, advertising bans, smoke-free public places, and health warnings on packages, the report said.

By 2015, an estimated 2.1 million cancer deaths annually will be caused by tobacco products. And by 2030, most of these deaths -- 83 percent -- will occur in poor and middle-income countries, the atlas reported.

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