Smoking could kill a billion this century

TOBACCO use killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill a billion people in the next 100 years unless governments act to dramatically reduce it, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday.

Governments around the world collect more than $200 billion (€138bn) in tobacco taxes every year but spend less than one fifth of 1% of that revenue on tobacco control, it said.

“We hold in our hands the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of one billion men, women and children during this century,” WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan said in an introduction to its new report.