Tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, and fossil fuels kill 2.7 million people in Europe every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which calls on governments to improve the regulation of products that affect health.
WHO shows, in a groundbreaking report, that powerful industries cause diseases and premature deaths using deceptive marketing strategies and interfering with governments’ efforts to prevent serious conditions such as cancer, heart diseases, and diabetes, as reported by The Guardian.
Tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, and fossil fuels are responsible for over 7,400 deaths each day in the 53 European countries. The four industries cause approximately 2.7 million deaths annually in Europe, which is nearly a quarter (24.5%) of the total number of deaths.
Number of deaths caused in Europe by commercial products:
- Tobacco - 1,151,575
- Alcohol - 426,857
- Fossil fuels - 578,908
- Salt-rich diet - 252,187
- Occupational risks - 174,732
- Processed meat-rich diet - 117,290
- Sugar-sweetened beverages-rich diet - 15,606
- Trans fatty acids-rich diet - 6,056
The findings of the UN health agency represent an unprecedented attack on the huge damages that major corporations and their products cause to human health. The report describes how industrial giants use both overt and covert methods to increase their profits by delaying and diverting policies aimed at improving public health.
"Industry tactics include exploiting vulnerable individuals through targeted marketing strategies, misleading consumers, and making false claims about the benefits of their products or their environmental approvals," said Dr. Hans Henri P Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
The strategies employed by major commercial groups undermine efforts to reduce smoking, drinking, and obesity, which are the leading causes of preventable diseases, as the report shows.
Despite the health risks, only a few European countries have banned smoking in public places, while efforts to make harmful products less appealing through plain packaging, alcohol taxation, and food labeling have not been widely implemented, as mentioned in the document.
The report compiled by WHO comes after a 2023 study found that alcohol, tobacco, processed foods and beverages, as well as fossil fuels, caused 19 million deaths annually worldwide, accounting for 34% of total deaths.
T.D.