THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Smoking caused nearly 5 million deaths worldwide in 2000, taking a similar toll in both developing and developed countries.
That finding comes from a study in this week's issue of The Lancet.
The American-Australian study estimates that about 4.8 million deaths in 2000 were attributable to smoking. More than 75 percent of those worldwide deaths were among men. That proportion of male victims was higher, 84 percent, in developing countries.
The main causes of smoking-related deaths worldwide were: cardiovascular disease, 1.7 million deaths; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, about 1 million deaths; and lung cancer, an estimated 850,000 deaths.
"As the hazards of smoking accumulate among those who began smoking in developing countries over the past few decades, coupled with population growth and aging, mortality as a result of smoking will rise substantially unless effective interventions and policies that curb and reduce smoking among men and prevent increases among women in these countries are implemented," researcher Majid Ezzati, Harvard School of Public Health, says in a news release.
In a prepared statement, John R. Seffrin, national CEO of the American Cancer Society, added, "This study is the first to quantify that the 21st century's 'brown plague' is striking the world's middle- and low-income countries with an intensity equal to that which has already been felt in the world's high-income nations and is, in fact, on the verge of surpassing it."
He continued, "Without immediate worldwide action -- most notably, strong support for the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control -- we can expect tobacco's death toll to nearly triple in the developing world over the next 20 years, killing in numbers that will rival any other world epidemic in human history."
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