Tobacco use, in any form, is deadly. Smoking kills one-third to one-half of all lifetime users, and smokers die an average of 15 years earlier than nonsmokers. In 2010, tobacco will kill 6 million people, 72 percent of whom reside in low- and middle-income countries. If current trends continue, tobacco will kill 7 million people annually by 2020 and more than 8 million people annually by 2030.

Tobacco-attributable mortality is increasing rapidly in developing countries, and by 2030, about 83 percent of the world’s tobacco deaths will occur in low- and middle-income countries. Tobacco kills more men than women worldwide because historical smoking prevalence has been higher among men than women. However, because smoking rates are increasing among women in many countries, particularly among young women, the gap in tobacco death rates between men and women is closing.

Tobacco also causes hundreds of thousands of deaths annually among nonsmokers. Occupational exposure to secondhand smoke kills 200,000 workers every year, while exposure to tobacco smoke in homes and public areas kills thousands more infants, children, fetuses, and adults. Children with developing organ systems and people with pre-existing heart and lung diseases are especially vulnerable.

One hundred million people were killed by tobacco in the 20th century. Unless effective measures are implemented to prevent young people from smoking and to help current smokers quit, tobacco will kill 1 billion people in the 21st century.

Tobaco causes up to 90 percent of lung cancer cases and is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke.

In the United States, secondhand smoke causes about 50,000 deaths annually.

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.