WMA - Policy on smoking

WMA - Policy

World Medical Association Statement on Health Hazards of Tobacco Products
Adopted by the 40th World Medical Assembly, Vienna, Austria, September 1988 amended by the 49th WMA General Assembly, Hamburg, Germany, November 1997 and the WMA General Assembly, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2007
PREAMBLE
More than one in three adults worldwide (more than 1.1 billion people) smokes, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Smoking and other forms of tobacco use affect every organ system in the body, and are major causes of cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, fetal damage, and many other conditions. Five million deaths occur worldwide each year due to tobacco use. If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020 and 70 percent of these will occur in developing countries. Tobacco use was responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20th century and will kill one billion people in the 21st century unless effective interventions are implemented. Furthermore, secondhand smoke - which contains more than 4000 chemicals, including more than 50 carcinogens and many other toxins - causes lung cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses in nonsmokers. /.../