Cigarettes add to misery of world's poor: WHO

Some 84 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion cigarette smokers live in developing or transitional economies and cannot afford the habit, WHO said in a statement released ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Monday.

"For the poor, money spent on tobacco is money not spent on basic necessities such as food, shelter, education and health care," it warned.

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"Tobacco also contributes to the poverty of individuals and families since tobacco users are at much higher risk of falling sick and dying prematurely of cancer, heart attack ... or other tobacco-related illnesses, thereby depriving families of much needed income and imposing additional health care costs."

An estimated five million people a year -- most of them poor -- die from tobacco-related diseases, according to WHO.

And with the number of smokers seen rising to 1.7 billion people in 2025, about 650 million people will be killed by tobacco between now and then if current trends persist, it said.

"Tobacco tends to be consumed by those who are poorer," WHO said, noting that the Western Pacific region has the highest number of smokers with China harbouring one third of the world's cigarette addicts -- 350 million people.

"Together, tobacco and poverty form a vicious circle from which it is often difficult to escape."

Smokers in Vietnam spend 3.6 times more on tobacco than on education and 1.9 times more on their habit than on health care, WHO said, citing the preliminary results of a study in the region.