Banning the purchase of cigarettes and other tobacco products for youth can significantly prevent 12 lakh lung cancer deaths in the young population, according to a study, published in The Lancet Public Health journal on Thursday.
The
findings aim to secure future generations from the risks of smoking, which is
the biggest risk factor for lung cancer. Smoking is the leading cause of
preventable death worldwide and is estimated to cause more than two-thirds of
the 18 lakh deaths every year.
In the
first-of-its-kind simulation study, researchers from the University of Santiago
de Compostela, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), called
for creating a generation of people who never smoke.
They
suggested banning the purchase of cigarettes and other tobacco products for
people born between 2006 and 2010. Their results showed it can prevent 12 lakh
lung cancer deaths in 185 countries by 2095.
This
could prevent 40.2 per cent (1.2 of 2.9 million) of the total lung cancer
deaths expected to occur in this birth cohort by 2095.
"Lung
cancer is a major killer worldwide, and a staggering two-thirds of deaths are
linked to one preventable risk factor -- tobacco smoking. Our modelling
highlights how much there is to gain for governments considering the
implementation of ambitious plans towards creating a tobacco-free
generation," said Dr. Julia Rey Brandariz, University of Santiago de
Compostela, Spain.
"Not
only could this save huge numbers of lives, it could massively reduce the
strain on health systems of treating, and caring for people in ill health as a
result of smoking," Brandariz added.
The
study further showed that banning tobacco sales could prevent almost half of
expected lung cancer deaths among men (45.8 per cent), and close to one-third
of expected deaths in women (30.9 per cent).
To
date, no country has made laws to make it illegal to sell tobacco to young
people. While New Zealand took the bold step to ban the sale of tobacco
products to anyone born in or after 2009, it was recently repealed.
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