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MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs) AV-Radio Programs MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS Relevance of Tobacco Control in achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Relevance of Tobacco Control in achieving the Millennium Development Goals

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Written by Idirs July 19, 2012 324 0Add

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WHEN: THURSDAY, JULY 19 , 2012 (TODAY)
TIME: 12: 00 P.M. -1: 00 P.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME (in one hr)
TO PARTICIPATE BY PHONE: CALL THIS NUMBER DURING SHOWTIME: (760) 283-0850
TO JOIN BY SKYPE - ADD: AFRICANVIEWS (CALL IN DURING SHOWTIME)

HOST: DR. PADMINI MURTHY, CO-HOST: DR. ELVIRA BERACOCHEA

THIS WEEK’S TOPIC focuses on the importance of treating tobacco dependence and training health professionals to treat it towards achieving MDGs

Tobacco use is a major preventable cause of premature death and is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. There are more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. It kills nearly six million people a year of whom more than 5 million are users and ex users and more than 600 000 are nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco and this accounts for one in 10 adult deaths. Nearly 80% of the more than one billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.

Listen to this AV Radio episode on BlogTalk (apology for the 30 seconds Blog Talk ad)

There is clear evidence that control of addiction will contribute to MDGs achievement, especially for the goals related to health outcomes, and poverty and hunger. Among the eight MDGs, six are related to health, which shows how important the links are between good health and efforts to combat poverty and ensure sustainable development.

In addition, the diseases and deaths that result from tobacco consumption impose great suffering and grief on the close family of the tobacco user, effects which are exacerbated by poverty. Evidence revealed in several countries that the prevalence of tobacco usage is higher among low income population. This puts the problems perpetrated by tobacco use into the development arena, including the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Furthermore, a resolution of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Tobacco Control, adopted in July 2004, recognized the adverse impact of tobacco use not only on health, but also on the society, the economy, and the environment, and on efforts towards poverty alleviation.

More intensive interventions, combining behavioral counseling and pharmacologic treatment, can produce 20% to 25% quit rates in one year. Tobacco control can do much to assist in achieving MDGs 2–7. Health damage can be reduced if smokers are assisted to stop, and if young people are discouraged from taking up tobacco. A smoker who quits reduces his or her risk of stroke and heart attack by 50 within two years. Joining as special guest to help us understand tobacco addiction and its prevention as well as cure is Dr. Sachs, currently Director of the Palo Alto Center for Pulmonary Disease Prevention

He has been an active tobacco-dependence researcher and clinician for over 25 years. He has been involved in FDA registration trials for nearly all currently marketed tobacco-dependence medications and designed many of them. He has personally treated more than 5,000 patients for tobacco dependence, as an integral part of his clinical practice of pulmonary medicine. More information about Dr. Sachs can be obtained on his website: http:// www.drlung.com

Tool Kit to accurately diagnose tobacco dependence and to effectively treat can be found here http://tobaccodependence.chestnet.org

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Would you like to know how to stop the most important preventable cause of death and prevent 1 billion deaths in this century?

Dr. David Sachs is the leading expert in tobacco dependence and has a unique approach to treat it. You will learn why smoking is not just a habit and why tobacco dependence can be treated successfully and saves lives. You will learn what can be done to prevent tobacco related deaths and why you must be an advocate for making tobacco dependence a treatable condition in your country.

Dr. Sachs is currently Director of the Palo Alto Center for Pulmonary Disease Prevention, a small, independent, non-profit, medical research and educational organization he founded in 1985. For the 7 years before that, he had been Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. During that time, he also served, from 1978-85, as Medical Director, Respiratory Therapy Department and Associate Chief, Medical Intensive Care Unit for University Hospitals of Cleveland.