Public health researchers call for policymakers to take actual risks into account
Jump to full article: Scoop (nz), 2006-01-27
Author: Press Release: University of Otago
Intro: The tobacco death burden in developed and Eastern European countries is equivalent to the impact of a 9/11-type terrorist attack every 14 hours, according to a newly published study by University of Otago public health researchers.
Estimated annual deaths from tobacco were approximately 5,700 times greater than those from international terrorist attacks, according to public health researchers Dr George Thomson and Dr Nick Wilson of the University’s Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
The researchers compared the estimated 1.9 million people in developed and Eastern European countries who died from tobacco in the year 2000, with the 3298 lives lost in international terrorist attacks in these same countries between 1994 and 2003.
“We found that the absolute annual burden from tobacco use was highest for the United States at 514,000 deaths per year in 2000, which is equivalent to the impact of an 9/11 type terrorist attack every 2.1 days,” says Dr Thomson.
The study, which is published in the international journal Globalization and Health, is part of wider attempt by the researchers to put international terrorism into a public health context, by comparing its mortality burden with those of other preventable causes of premature death.
“In the last 20 or more years governments have spent considerable sums in attempts to combat international terrorism, as well as introducing new laws,” he says. “However, despite tobacco mortality’s far greater scale, the policy response by government on tobacco has been much weaker.”
Jump to full article »
Quotes from this article:
We found that the absolute annual burden from tobacco use was highest for the United States at 514,000 deaths per year in 2000, which is equivalent to the impact of an 9/11 type terrorist attack every 2.1 days
Dr George Thomson of the University of Otago's Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in a study published in the international journal Globalization and Health.
In the last 20 or more years governments have spent considerable sums in attempts to combat international terrorism, as well as introducing new laws. However, despite tobacco mortality’s far greater scale, the policy response by government on tobacco has been much weaker.
Dr George Thomson of the University of Otago's Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in a study published in the international journal Globalization and Health.
|