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Should tobacco remain a consumer product? Any reasons?

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Should tobacco remain a consumer product? Any reasons?

I am often intrigued by the fact that how come a consumer product which kills five million people worldwide still enjoys the status of a legal product. What perplexes me further is that even most of the hardcore tobacco control workers are still not thinking about ending tobacco as a consumer product and are not considering it as one of the options. Why? I have failed to understand this till now. Some believe that it can not be done as tobacco is very much a part of day-to-day life, others parrot the tobacco companies rhetoric that there has to be "Freedom of choice" and still some others are so deeply involved in microscopic technicalities that they even fail to see what is the most obvious and basic. More so, even the international treaty on tobacco control (FCTC) fails to envisage an end date for tobacco and among its objectives does not consider phasing out/ending tobacco consumption. This is despite the fact that tobacco consumption and production is still increasing exponentially.

 

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Tobacco Facts

Q. What is the connection between tobacco use and poverty?

A. The net economic effect of tobacco is to decrease an economy's productive capacity through death, increased poverty and higher health care costs. The tobacco epidemic makes global health inequalities worse. In most countries, tobacco use is higher among the poor than the rich and the poor suffer more from the consequences of tobacco-related diseases, creating economic hardship and perpetuating the cycle of poverty and illness. The early death of the primary wage earner is especially catastrophic for poor families and communities. In addition, money spent on tobacco means money not spent on basic necessities such as food, shelter, education and health care. In some developing countries, the lowest income group spend more than 10% of their household income on tobacco.