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By PAPosted: 01/07/2013 10:57 BST
It seems a lifetime ago that people were allowed to smoke inside bars and restaurants, and while the measure is
effective, it seems tax rises on cigarettes save more lives than smoking bans. According to a global
study, tobacco control measures avert
seven million deaths by 2050.
Scientists looked at the effects of six anti-smoking policies
introduced in 41 countries, excluding the UK, between 2007 and 2010. Projections
of the number of premature deaths the measures were likely to prevent by 2050
produced a figure of 7.4 million. Increasing taxes on cigarettes to 75% of
their price in 14 regions had the biggest impact, which was greater than legal
smoking bans.
Tax rises prevented 3.5 million smoking-related deaths while
"smoke-free air laws" in 20 of the countries studied averted 2.5
million. Lead researcher Professor David Levy, from Georgetown University
Medical Centre in Washington, US, said: "It's a spectacular finding that
by implementing these simple tobacco control policies governments can save so
many lives."
The evidence-based measures, known by the acronym MPOWER, were
identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2008. They
consist of monitoring tobacco use, protecting people from tobacco smoke,
warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising,
promotion and sponsorship, and raising tobacco taxes.
The study targeted 41 countries known to have implemented at
least one of the policies at the highest impact level. In 2007, almost 290
million people living in the countries smoked. The UK, US, France and Germany
were not in the list which included countries in Africa, Asia, South America
and eastern Europe.
Of the total, 33 countries had put in place one of the measures
and eight had adopted more than one. Computer modelling was used to predict the life-saving potential
of the policies. Turkey was one of the countries most affected by anti-smoking
policies. There, tax rises alone were predicted to save more than 1.5 million
lives and smoking bans around 880,000. The findings, published in the Bulletin
of the World Health Organisation, also forecast a total of 700,000 deaths averted by health
warnings, 380,000 by cessation treatments, and 306,000 by restrictions on
tobacco marketing.
Prof Levy added: "In addition to some 7.4 million lives
saved, the tobacco control policies we examined can lead to other health
benefits such as fewer adverse birth outcomes related to maternal smoking,
including low birth weight, and reduced healthcare costs and less loss of
productivity due to less smoking-related disease."
Millions more lives could be saved if the control measures were
adopted even more widely, according to Dr Douglas Bettcher, director of the
department of non-communicable diseases at the WHO.
"Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death
in the world, with six million smoking-attributable deaths per year today, and
these deaths are projected to rise to eight million a year by 2030, if current
trends continue," he said. "By taking the right measures, this
tobacco epidemic can be entirely prevented."
A ban on smoking in work
and public places came into force in Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland in
2006. England followed suit the following year. Russia became the latest
country to introduce public place smoking bans on June 1.
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