Tackling the Tobacco Epidemic: Global Threats Demand Global Solutions

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The global tobacco epidemic looms as a major threat to public health. There are more than 1.2 billion smokers in the world. The impact of tobacco use over several decades causes around 4 million deaths a year. Because of the lag between tobacco use today and the appearance of tobacco's full health effects, patterns of tobacco use today will lead to about 10 million deaths from tobacco per year in the 2020s. And because 70 percent of tobacco users now live in developing countries, it is not surprising that 70 percent of tobacco deaths in the 2020s will occur in developing countries. Epidemiological evidence was first derived from large-scale studies in the USA and UK. Now, the evidence also comes from China, India, South Africa and Brazil. An important difference between the USA and UK studies and those from developing countries is that the effects of tobacco occurred in developed countries after most infectious diseases were well controlled. In contrast, throughout much of the developing world, infectious diseases and under-nutrition co-exist with a rising incidence of tobacco-induced chronic diseases. The double burden imposes major challenges to health services. The pressure to provide expensive forms of treatment for cancers, heart and chronic respiratory diseases could distort spending patterns in developing countries. For many, there is a need to give higher priority to effective prevention policies: these should start with those that bring in needed money-higher excise tax on tobacco products and should include those measures that do not cost government anything; such as bans on advertising and smoking in public places.

Present and future generations must be urgently protected from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.

Governments use the tobacco control measures in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. By implementing these measures, governments reduce the heavy burden of disease and death that is attributable to tobacco use or exposure.

Integrative Journal of Global Health aims to disseminate knowledge and promote discussion through the publication of peer-reviewed, high quality papers on research which is needed to address the threats like Air pollution, Climate change, Non-communicable diseases, Global influenza pandemic, Antimicrobial resistance, Ebola and other high-threat pathogens, Weak primary health care, Vaccine hesitancy etc. The open access journal is published by Insight Medical Publishing (iMedPub) which is a comprehensive destination for the recent and the latest discoveries in the science, technology, medicine, and engineering. Established in 2005, iMedPub has been serving the scientific community relentlessly with its open access platform for publishing the research outcome to reach the global scientific fraternity.

We cordially invite scientists, academicians and researchers from around the world to contribute their current research undertakings to our upcoming issue (Volume 4| Issue 1) on behalf of Editor-in-Chief.

Submit your manuscripts online to publish with us. For further information or assistance in this regard E-mail your queries at globalhealth@escientificjournals.com.

 

Best Regards,

Michael

Associate Managing Editor

Integrative Journal of Global Health

E-mail: globalhealth@scholarlypub.com

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