World No Tobacco Day
2004
focuses on
tobacco and poverty
The contribution of tobacco to death and disease is well documented. Less attention is given to the ways in which tobacco increases poverty.
Although
tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world; it is currently
responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide, countries,
development agencies, donors and multilateral agencies are recognizing
that tobacco use has implications for poverty that go far beyond health
implications.
The economic costs of tobacco use are equally devastating. In addition to the high public health costs of treating tobacco-caused diseases, tobacco kills people at the height of their productivity, depriving families of breadwinners and nations of a healthy workforce. Tobacco users are also less productive while they are alive due to increased sickness.
A 1994 report estimated that the use of tobacco resulted in an annual global net loss of US$200 thousand million, a third of this loss being in developing countries.
Developing countries will face the brunt of the tobacco epidemic. Although tobacco use has declined in many high-income countries in recent decades, there have been sharp increases in tobacco use, especially among men, in low and middle-income countries in recent years. Close to 60% of the 5.700 billion cigarettes smoked each year and 75% of tobacco users are in developing countries.
In other words, poorer individuals tend to use tobacco products more than their wealthier counterparts. Similar patterns exist with respect to education and socioeconomic status.
In a study on the economic impact of tobacco consumption on the poor in Bangladesh it stated:
“Nearly half the population of Bangladesh in 1995-96 lived below the poverty line, and coexisting with this extreme poverty is a thriving tobacco industry.
“The
average male cigarette smokers spend more than twice as much on cigarettes
as per capita expenditure on clothing, housing, health and education
combined. The typical poor smoker could easily add over 500 calories to
the diet of one or two children with his or her daily tobacco expenditure.
An estimated 10.5 million people currently malnourished could have an
adequate diet if money on tobacco were spent on food instead. The lives of
350 children could be saved each day.” 1
The damage that is done when scarce family resources are spent on tobacco products instead of food and other essential needs can hardly be under-estimated.
Child labour is another critical issue. In the late 1990’s, UNICEF concluded that use of children in tobacco production was widespread in many tobacco-producing countries.
In May 2003, WHO took a historic step, completing five years of work that brought together scientific certainty and political will around a set of global rules for tobacco sales, promotion and consumption.
1 Hungry for tobacco: an analysis of the economic impact of tobacco consumption on the poor in Bangladesh. © PATH Canada, Dhaka. 2001.