Tobacco.org

5.4 million people killed by tobacco annually 

African Regional Meeting on Tobacco Control Building for Africa, is underway in Accra to brainstorm on strategies to curb the about 5.4 million global annual deaths related to tobacco.

The participants, which comprise 17 African countries and representatives from the US and Switzerland would be spending the next two days to discuss the tactics to reverse the findings of a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the death toll per year would rise to eight million by 2030 with 80 per cent of the victims from Third World countries.

The consultation, which is a follow-up of a similar meeting in Geneva in February this year, would use the 2008 WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, as a reference point to identify the strengths and weaknesses of tobacco control in the Region.

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