5 million: Yearly tobacco deaths

Tobacco smoking kills at least 5 million people around the planet every year -- 600,000 of them from breathing secondhand smoke -- the World Health Organization reported last week. The death toll could rise to 8 million per year by 2030, mostly in low-income, low-education, developing countries, the U.N. agency said.
This is a terrible waste of human lives, stemming from a drug addiction that brings no benefit, only a plague of illnesses.
Nearly 170 nations ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, pledging to protect their populations from the worst preventable health menace, but results have been paltry, especially in the poor Third World.Education and prosperity are the best cures for nicotine addiction. "Smoking levels naturally drop off -- as they have in Western countries -- when populations become richer and better-educated," a report noted.
Sadly, rural West Virginia has America's worst rate of deadly cigarette use, a new U.S. study found last month. With lower income and learning levels, mountain folk are prime victims of the curse that causes cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other ills.
The U.S. report, by the Centers for Disease Control, pointed out that "41.3 percent of persons with a GED certificate smoked cigarettes, compared to 5.7 percent of persons with a graduate degree. . . . Smoking rates among low-income adults enrolled in Medicaid programs are much higher than the general population (33 percent to 19 percent)."
State Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha -- a physician -- wants to add $1 per pack to West Virginia's cigarette tax for a double-benefit: to raise $100 million state revenue and save teenagers from getting hooked on nicotine. Bravo. We hope he draws solid support in the Legislature.
As for adults, each smoker ultimately faces a solitary challenge. It's up to the individual puffer to decide whether to go through the agonizing struggle to break free from one of the strongest addictions. It takes courage and willpower, but we hope more West Virginians bravely make the effort.