Smoking kills over 20,000 annually

by Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna

Fifty years after the UK Royal College of Physicians’ medical research issued its first precautionary warning on smoking cigarettes to the world, one third of the total population in Sri Lanka are still found to be smokers. Hand book of Drug abuse information 2011 shows that the number of cigarettes issued in 2010 has increased from nearly 200 million (185,245,400)in Sri Lanka comparing with 2009.

Over 20,000 deaths are reported annually due to smoking related diseases in Sri Lanka, while 40% of the cancer hospital admissions are smokers.

The 50th anniversary of the UK Royal College of Physicians’ report on Smoking and Health, a publication that had a significant impact on the reduction of tobacco use in the world, was marked last Tuesday.
UK Royal College of Physicians’ Report on Smoking was the first time that world started to make a change in smokers’ behaviour and societal attitudes towards smoking.

http://www.nation.lk/edition/todays-news/item/3773-smoking-kills-over-20000-annually.html