2024-10-07 09:45:02
Banning the sale of tobacco products to people born after a specific year with the goal that they never start using them is known as the “tobacco-free generation.” This is a measure that has been applied or taken into consideration in several countries but, until now, a global estimate of the impact that an action of this type can have worldwide has never been made. This estimate has now been made in a new study.
The research was conducted by a team led by the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) in Galicia, Spain, with the collaboration of the Center for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health Network (CIBERESP) in Spain, the International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) and other bodies.
The research, which covers a total of 185 countries, is based on a hypothetical scenario in which tobacco consumption would be banned for the population born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2010, assuming that the measure was implemented perfectly.
The results of the study indicate that the number of lives that would be saved in the world surpasses the million barrier, reaching 1.2 million, which means avoiding 40.2% of all lung cancer deaths, in people born in that five-year period, until 2095. A greater number of lung cancer deaths would be avoided in men (45.8% of total deaths) than in women (30.9% of the total).
By region, the highest percentage of deaths is recorded in Western Europe (73.6%). In men, more deaths would be avoided in the Central and Eastern European region (74.3%) and, in the case of women, in Western Europe (77.7%). “Although globally the rate of preventable deaths from lung cancer is higher in men, in some regions of North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand this rate is higher in women,” explains the USC research team which is made up of teachers in the area of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. They are Julia Rey Brandariz (first author), Mónica Pérez Ríos and Alberto Ruano Raviña, also coordinator of Epidemiology of the Spanish Lung Cancer Group and CIBERESP. The team highlights that 21,900 deaths would be avoided in Spain, of which 11,600 concern men and 10,300 women. “This would mean avoiding 71.9% and 73.1% of predicted lung cancer deaths in men and women, respectively,” they explain.
A cigarette. (Photo: Amazings/NCYT)
The tobacco-free generation is a measure that is part of a strategy known as the “tobacco endgame” that aims to dramatically end the tobacco epidemic. New Zealand pioneered the implementation of this measure by banning the sale of tobacco products to people born on or after January 1, 2009, but a change in government withdrew this measure. In the United Kingdom, a ban on the sale of tobacco to people born on or after January 1, 2009 is being considered in 2027. Measures similar to the tobacco-free generation were previously applied in cities in the United States and the Philippines.
Although the study is the simulation of the application of a generation without tobacco, this research group has also recently confirmed, in the Spanish Journal of Cardiology, that tobacco consumption causes approximately 54,000 deaths per year in Spain and, in Archivos de Bronconeumología , that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke causes 750 deaths each year. “These data are fueling future legislative changes in our country,” they underline, since tobacco consumption is the main cause of preventable death from chronic diseases. “It is essential to continue to strengthen and enforce tobacco control measures that help reduce the impact of tobacco use on lung cancer mortality, as well as more than 20 tobacco-related diseases,” they conclude.
The study is titled “Estimated impact of a tobacco elimination strategy on lung cancer mortality in 185 countries: a population-based birth cohort simulation study” and was published in the academic journal Lancet Public Health. (Source: USC/CIBER)
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