Seven countries, 1.3m lives lost – the devastating impact of tobacco revealed

Researchers found that together, the seven countries represented more than half of the global burden of cancer deaths every year. They concluded that smoking, as well as three other preventable risk factors – alcohol, overweight or obesity, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, caused almost two million deaths combined.

The study, carried out by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Kings College London, also analysed the years of life lost to cancer.

This approach allowed researchers to examine whether certain risk factors are causing deaths more prematurely, enabling them to better measure the impact of cancer deaths on society – for example, a cancer death at age 60 will result in more years of life lost than a death at age 80.