Taking the world up in smoke: a tobacco peril.

• Author: Talwar, Namrita

Every eight seconds one person dies of tobacco-related diseases, which kill 4 million people annually. The worldwide demand for tobacco is expected to continually rise for at least another decade.

While tobacco consumption is expected to decrease in developed countries, developing countries could face an increase, according to a report entitled "Projections of tobacco production, consumption and trade to the year 2010", published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Over the past forty years, medical research, anti-smoking campaigns, increasing health awareness and initiatives by the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote health and encourage tobacco control policies have exposed the dangers of smoking to the world. This resulted in a substantial drop in the number of smokers in developed countries, from a peak of 34 per cent in 1998 to its current level of about 29 per cent for tobacco consumption. Yet, despite considerable scientific evidence, consumption in developing nations is expected to escalate to 71 per cent by 2010, the report states.

"Population levels and incomes are growing more rapidly in the developing countries, and these are driving an increased consumption of tobacco", Brian Moir, senior commodity specialist in the FAO Commodities and Trade Division, told the UN Chronicle. Part of the reason why clamping down on consumption has not met with much success is that reduction in support of tobacco farmers in the United States and the European Union has led to reduced production, which resulted in a production shift from the developed to the developing world, he said.

"Agriculture production support in developed countries generally is under pressure from the international trade negotiations and also because of internal budgetary pressure", according to Mr. Moir. For tobacco in particular, "Governments and tax-payers are additionally concerned that they are supporting the production of an unhealthy product, which then imposes further costs through the health care system". World production is projected to reach over 7.1 million tonnes of tobacco leaf in the year 2010, up from 5.9 million tonnes in 1997/1999. Although this is lower than the record production of 7.5 million tonnes in 1992, the number of smokers is expected to increase by 1.5 per cent annually. In recent years, multinational companies have turned their attention to new markets abroad. China alone accounts for over 35 per cent of...