Health Ministry’s event to mark the ‘World No Tobacco Day’

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan organized an event on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day that smokers face a 40-50% higher risk of developing severe disease deaths from COVID-19.

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He further expressed that use of tobacco in the country has decreased by six percentage points from 34.6% in 2009-10 to 28.6% in 2016-17.

In India, over 1.3 million deaths are attributable to tobacco use every year amounting to 3500 deaths per day, imposing a lot of avoidable socio-economic burden.

Smokers face a 40-50% higher risk of developing severe disease deaths from COVID-19.

As per the WHO study titled “Economic Costs of Diseases and Deaths Attributable to Tobacco Use in India”, the economic burden of diseases and deaths attributable to tobacco use of tobacco in India was as high as Rs. 1.77 lakh crores, amounting to approx 1% of GDP.