According to a report released by the World Heart Federation (WHF), half of all Chinese smokers and one-third of Indian smokers are unaware of the risks tobacco pose to the heart. There is even lesser awareness about the dangers of second hand smoke. According to WHF, cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills 17.3 million people every year. Around 80% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries like India, which are increasingly being targeted by the tobacco industry.

Prof K Srinath Reddy, president of Public Health Foundation of India and chairman of Science and Pol-icy Initiatives Committee, WHF, said, Indians need to wake up to the threat of CVDs which are having a devastating impact on the nations health, growth and development. Joint government and public action on tackling these diseases is the need of the hour. Our policies and programmes must focus on clearly informing the masses about the ill-effects of tobacco use and effective measures like pictorial health warnings on tobacco products must depict heart disease and stroke as real dangers of tobacco use.

Every year, tobacco kills 1 million people in India. Heart disease caused by it accounts for the highest number of deaths (29%).
Data from Indian Heart Watch ” the countrys largest heart-risk survey of 6,000 people across 11 ci-ties over five years ” presented at the WCC on Friday found awareness among tobacco users shock-ingly low.
According to WHOs Mortality Attributable to Tobacco Report, globally 12% of all deaths among adults aged 30 years and above were due to smokeless tobacco in 2004 compared with 16% in India, Pakistan (17%) and Bangladesh (31%). Direct tobacco smoking was responsible for 5 million deaths.

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