Tobacco is on course to kill a billion people this century — 10 times the toll it exacted in the 20th century — if current trends continue, public health officials said Monday.

Worldwide, tobacco causes one in five cancer deaths, or 1.4 million deaths each year. An estimated 1.25 billion men and women around the globe smoke cigarettes.

In Canada, 30 per cent of fatal cancers can be linked to tobacco. Health Canada projects 70,400 cancer deaths for 2006.
(Pat Wellenbach/Associated Press)

The staggering statistics, detailed in the new Cancer Atlas and updated Tobacco Atlas, were released at the International Union Against Cancer conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Health officials said that reducing tobacco use, improving nutrition and decreasing infection by cancer-causing viruses could cut global cancer rates sharply.

"We know with cancer, if we take action now, we can save two million lives a year by 2020 and 6.5 million by 2040," said Dr. Judith Mackay, a World Health Organization senior policy adviser.

The numbers in Canada are similarly sobering with tobacco use accounting for almost 30 per cent of all fatal cancers. Health Canada projects 153,100 new cases of cancer and 70,400 cancer deaths for 2006.

According to Statistics Canada, 22 per cent of Canadians aged 12 or older were smokers in 2005, down from 23 per cent in 2003.

The cancer and tobacco atlases were published by the American Cancer Society with assistance from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.