SUSSEX, U.K., March 26, 2001: Smoking will become the biggest killer in developing world countries within the next 20 years, surpassing those deaths caused by the Aids epidemic according to the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, UK’s government- based study. The report forecasts that within two decades 8.5 million people a year will be dying in developing countries because of smoking. A billion people around the world are currently smokers, and tobacco-related illness currently kills 3.5 million a year. At the moment it is mainly a rich country disease, but the report says this is changing fast. The report says the increasing process of globalization will be partly to blame as developing countries are forced to drop tariff barriers against highly successful international brands and that many governments are seduced by the inward investment this brings, but have not realized the long-term cost in human lives.
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