Source: China Daily

03-23-2009 16:25

Policymakers need to step up efforts to cut smoking rates in Asia to prevent an "epidemic" of tobacco-related lung disease, medical experts have said at a conference in Mumbai.

Stopping smoking is a very simple way" of cutting TB rates.

Many Asian countries have seen a surge in tobacco use in the last decade, particularly among the young and in urban areas as a result of economic growth. A rise in smoking by women has also been noted.

But ignorance of the health risks remain, especially among the rural poor, while overall tobacco use is adding an economic burden to countries in terms of healthcare and insurance costs plus lost productivity through illness.

Matthew Peters, head of thoracic medicine at Sydney's Concord Hospital, told the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health that there were "real and material healthcare benefits" for countries to encourage people to quit.

Between 20 and 60 percent of cases of tuberculosis, which is increasing in Asia, were caused by smoking, he told a seminar entitled "Tobacco-related lung disease in Asia - actions to avert the epidemic".

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