Smoking, The Burden of Mortality of

Tobacco smoking has been causally associated with premature mortality from several medical causes. Smoking increased in most developing countries over the last quarter of the twentieth century, with an estimated 930. million of the world's estimated 1.1. billion smokers currently living in low- and middle-income countries. In the year 2001, an estimated 4.8. million deaths in the world were attributable to tobacco smoking accounting for 9% of all worldwide deaths. Seventy percent of these deaths were in low- and middle-income countries. Three quarters (76%) of the 4.8 smoking-attributable deaths were among men. A total of 1.6. million smoking-attributable deaths were from cardiovascular diseases (10% of all global cardiovascular deaths) and 1.5. million were from cancers (20% of all global cancer deaths)