This May 31st is World No Tobacco Day. The World Health Organization (WHO), on Monday (30), released a report that blames the tobacco industry for the death of more than 8 million people every year, in addition to destroying the environment and human health.
In an interview with CNN Radio the pathologist and professor at the USP School of Medicine, Paulo Saldiva, assessed that the number is “very large, and that tobacco remains an important source despite the reduction in some countries.”
“The butt is a partially burned cigarette and has already produced something that affects human health,” he explained.
The pathologist believes that “tobacco will still be a problem for a long time”, as the industry “is looking to launch new strategies”, such as e-cigarettes.
“It would be necessary to have a more efficient control policy and, above all, to face the position of the tobacco industry, which wants to protect itself”, he defended.
Even so, Paulo Saldiva stressed that “without a doubt” the trend is to reduce the number of smokers in Brazil and that, in the future, “tobacco will remain just a historical record, just like opium”.
“In the 60s, Brazil had between 30 and 35% of smokers and today we have around 10% of the population that smokes”, he added.
Source: CNN Brasil
