12 million Iranians are smokers

TEHRAN, Oct. 25 (MNA) -- The managing director of the Iranian Tobacco Company says that 12 million Iranians smoke cigarettes.

“There are 12 million cigarette smokers across the country, bringing tobacco turnover to $3 billion,” Mohammad Abtahi said here on Sunday while visiting the booth of the Tehran Times daily and the Mehr News Agency at the Tehran Press Fair.

“However, drug smuggling in Iran has decreased by 10 percent over the past year,” Abtahi added.

He stated that the daily per capita consumption of cigarettes in the world is 7 but the rate is 2.2 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It is projected that Iranians will smoke 61.2 billion cigarettes in the current Iranian calendar year of 1388 (began March 21, 2009), up from 60.4 billion in Iranian calendar year 1387 (March 2008-March 2009), showing a projected rise of 1.2 percent over the past year, he said.

Iran's Tobacco Company's latest figure shows tobacco turnover reached 3 billion dollars.

“Around 30 percent of the turnover is authorized by the Iran's Tobacco Company and the rest is carried out by smugglers and foreign companies,” Abtahi added.

According to the Iranian tobacco company over one third of cigarettes around the world are contributed by smugglers.

The Tobacco Atlas estimates that tobacco use kills some six million people each year -- more than a third of whom will die from cancer -- and drains $500 billion annually from global economies.

According to the World Health Organization, one in ten deaths among adults worldwide is caused by tobacco. Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century. Just in 2005, it caused an average of one death every six seconds. If current trends continue, the death toll is expected to reach over 8 million annually by 2030 and could hit one billion deaths in the 21st century.

SN/HG MNA END

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