The American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation Present The Tobacco Atlas, Third Edition in Spanish (Latin America Regional Press Release)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Data shows some progress in tobacco control in Latin America, but many countries in the region have high smoking rates
In South America, 15-19.9% of adult deaths in
most countries
are caused by smoking
(Mexico City, Mexico) - Today, the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation presented the Spanish version of The Tobacco Atlas, Third Edition, which is now available globally. The book offers maps and graphics to illustrate a wide range of international tobacco issues, exposes the behavior of the tobacco industry, and predicts the future course of the epidemic globally, including Latin America. It also offers solutions to curbing the global usage of tobacco.
It is estimated that there are more than 1 billion smokers in the world, half of whom will eventually die from a tobacco-related illness. The Tobacco Atlas highlights the global damage of tobacco consumption, drawing from the latest available data on countries in Latin America and other regions around the world. The book is a tool to help civil society and governments take decisive action to reduce the harms of tobacco, such as lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome.
In Latin America, Brazil and Mexico both are among the top 20 countries in the world for both male and female smoking populations. Argentina is among the top 20 countries in the world for female smokers.
There has been substantial progress in tobacco control in Latin America. Smoke-free provisions have expanded rapidly throughout the region, including new laws at both national and local levels offering protection to millions of people. (1) Almost every country in Latin America has ratified the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first public health treaty.
"We are pleased to provide access to the latest critical data on tobacco to Spanish-speaking audiences in Latin America and around the world through the release of The Tobacco Atlas in Spanish," said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer, American Cancer Society. "The Tobacco Atlas is crucial to understanding the nature of the most preventable disease epidemic throughout Latin America, and can serve as a valuable tool as the region moves forward in its tobacco control efforts."
"One of the most important aspects of tobacco control is informing government and the public about the dangers of tobacco and the clear policy steps that can prevent millions of deaths," said Peter Baldini, chief executive officer, World Lung Foundation. "The Tobacco Atlas is an excellent tool for such information and we are pleased we could help bring it to Latin America via Mexico, which has already shown leadership in addressing the tobacco epidemic."
Consumption of tobacco can cause serious economic losses – about US $500 billion globally.
- Because 25 percent of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income lost devastates families and communities.
- Cigarettes are the world's most widely smuggled legal consumer product. In 2006, about 600 billion smuggled cigarettes made it to the market, representing an enormous missed tax opportunity for governments. According to The Tobacco Atlas, in Latin America, illicit trade comprises 20 percent of the market with approximately 59 billion cigarettes.
- Tobacco replaces potential food production on almost 4 million hectares of the world's agricultural land, equal to all of the world's orange groves or banana plantations.
- The Tobacco Atlas shows the direct and indirect economic costs of tobacco to selected countries worldwide. For Latin America, examples of direct costs of tobacco to countries include US$2.2 billion to Argentina, US$1.14 billion to Chile, and about US$409 million to Venezuela.
- In developing countries, smokers spend disproportionate sums of money relative to their incomes that could otherwise be spent on food, healthcare and other necessities. The poorest 20 percent of households in Mexico spend more than 10 percent of their household income on tobacco.(2)
The Tobacco Atlas also crystallizes an undeniable trend: the tobacco industry is exacerbating these negative health and economic effects by aggressively promoting their products. Tobacco companies are shifting from traditional advertising to point-of-sale promotions, and are using deceptive and subliminal forms of advertising, particularly through brand placement. Latin America continues to be a target of the industry; a search of the Legacy Web site of tobacco industry documents generated more than 50,000 documents for each of the following countries: Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina.
2Sesma-Vázquez S et al. El comportamiento de la demanda de tabaco en México: 1992-1998. [Trends of tobacco demand in México: 1992-1998]. Salud Pública de Mexico, 2002, 44(Suppl. 1):S82-S92.
About the Authors
The four authors of the publication bring together an impressive array of credentials.Michael Eriksen, Sc.D., is a professor and founding director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University. He has been a senior advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO), and was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health.
Judith Mackay, M.D., is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh and London, and a special advisor at World Lung Foundation. She is also a senior policy advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and a director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control.
Hana Ross, Ph.D., is an economist and strategic director of International Tobacco Control Research at the American Cancer Society. She is also deputy director of the International Tobacco Evidence Network (ITEN), a network promoting collaboration among economists interested in tobacco control issues.
Omar Shafey, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a medical anthropologist and epidemiologist, and an adjunct professor of Global Health at Emory University. Among many publications and studies, he was a coauthor of the second edition of The Tobacco Atlas.
About The Tobacco Atlas, Third Edition
The Tobacco
Atlas, Third Edition was previewed in
2009 at the World Conference on Tobacco OR
Health in Mumbai, India. An updated version was
released in August 2009 at the LIVESTRONG
Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, Ireland. The
Spanish version has just been published and
released in Mexico City, Mexico. For more
information on how to obtain a copy of the book
or download book PDF files, please visit www.TobaccoAtlas.org.
In addition, Chinese and French versions will
be released later this year. Data contained
within The
Tobacco Atlas are gathered from multiple
sources and validated to ensure they present a
holistic and accurate picture of tobacco and
tobacco control across the globe.
On TobaccoAtlas.org,
policymakers, public health practitioners,
advocates, and journalists can interact with
the data and create customizable charts, graphs
and maps.
# # #
About The American Cancer Society
The American Cancer
Society combines an unyielding passion with
nearly a century of experience to save lives
and end suffering from cancer. As a global
grassroots force of more than three million
volunteers, and with programs in more than 20
countries, we fight for every birthday
threatened by cancer in communities worldwide.
We save lives by helping people stay well by
preventing cancer or detecting it early; by
helping people get well by being there for them
during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding
cures through investment in groundbreaking
discovery; and by fighting back by rallying
lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by
rallying people across the globe to join the
fight. As a global leader in cancer research
investment, we turn what we know about cancer
into what we do. To learn more or to get help,
and for more information on our global
programs, visit www.cancer.org/global.
About World Lung Foundation
World
Lung Foundation was established in response to
the global epidemic of
lung disease, which kills 10 million people
each year. The organization
improves global lung health by improving local
capacity to conduct
research, develop public policy and deliver
public health education.
The organization's areas of emphasis are
tobacco control, tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS, asthma, and child lung health. For
more information, please
visit worldlungfoundation.org
Jessica Rivera
Martec Brodeur
jrivera@brodeur.com