Rome (Fides Service) - Monday 31 May is World No Tobacco Day. In the world today there are 1.3 billion people who smoke and 84% live in developing countries. Smoking kills 13,500 people every day. At the world level 47.5% are men and 10.3% are women.
Among the various initiatives organised to mark the day a “Feel Free to Say No” campaign of information and prevention addressed to teenagers, promoted by the European Commission with the aim of dissuading young people from starting to smoke or helping them to stop. The campaign, started three years ago, spreads information on the danger of smoking and the “manipulation” on the part of the tobacco industry.
For the occasion the Italian Higher Institute for Health has organised a conference “Tabagismo e Servizio Sanitario Nazionale”.
In developed countries smoking is the cause of 25-30% of all kinds of cancer and more than 80% of cases of lung cancer cases. According to the World Health Organisation the risk of lung cancer among smokers is 5 to 10 times greater than among non smokers. A smoker is three times more liable to die in middle age, (35 to 69 anni) and can expect to live 20-25 less.
The most alarming factor is that the age at which the first cigarette is ever younger. In Italy young people start smoking at the average age of 11: out of every 100 pre-teens four smoke at 11; at 13 years 14% smoke and at 15 one out of three. A survey showed that three out of four youngsters were convinced that giving up smoking is very easy. In the north west Italy 10.6% of children aged 11 to 15, smoke; in the north east 7.2%; in central Italy 12%; in southern Italy; 9.5% in Sicily and Sardinia 10.3%. (AP) (28/5/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:29; Parole:382)