About 7.69 million people died worldwide in 2019 from different smoking-related diseases, an estimate by an international team of researchers shows. China accounted for the largest number of deaths – 2.42 million, nearly 30% of the world total – followed by India at 1.01 million, the US at 530,000, Russia at 290,000 and Indonesia at 250,000, according to the estimate published in the British medical journal The Lancet. The study, which analysed data from over 3,000 health surveys covered more than 200 countries and regions. Also read: Speakers for amending Smoking and Tobacco Usage (Control) Act The team found the number of smokers in the world topped 1.1 billion in 2019, with 7 trillion cigarettes consumed annually. Although smoking rates are on a downward trend in developed countries, the number of smokers is on the rise in developing countries, including those in Africa, where the population is growing rapidly. The most common diseases that directly caused deaths among smokers were ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and strokes. Smoking is known to increase the risk of developing these diseases. However, the estimate does not include the health damage caused by secondhand smoke. Also read: Quit Smoking: How to prevent Nicotine addiction The team also found that 87% of the deaths were in people who continued smoking, and only 6% were people who had quit smoking more than 15 years before their deaths. As the tobacco industry is developing marketing strategies targeting youths to promote items such as flavoured cigarettes and e-cigarettes, banning the sale of such products will help reduce the number of young smokers, the team said and called for measures such as higher tobacco taxes and advertising restrictions.

Scores of prominent doctors have urged the government to hike tobacco tax in the budget to protect public health. In a joint statement on Friday, initiated by Dhaka Ahsania Mission, 121 doctors said tobacco was involved in six of the eight leading causes of preventable death worldwide. The statement noted that cigarettes are very cheap and readily available in the market due to the multi-layered tax structure of cigarettes in Bangladesh depending on the features and brands. As a result, consumers are able to choose cheaper cigarettes instead of quitting, and the use of cigarettes has been relatively similar in recent years. The availability of tobacco products must be reduced through tax increases, said the doctors. Also read: Speakers want specific taxes imposed to increase price of tobacco products According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), tobacco users have a 57 percent higher risk of developing tobacco-related diseases such as heart disease, stroke, COPD or lung cancer, and a 109 percent higher risk of other tobacco-related cancers. According to the statement, more than 1,61,000 people die of tobacco-related diseases every year in Bangladesh.