World Heart Federation/WHO/Inernational Tobacco Control Project (ITC) report on awareness about CVD and tobacco around the world (or lack of it)

Cardiovascular Harms from Tobacco Use and Secondhand Smoke Exposure: global gaps in awareness and implications for action.

http://www.world-heart-federation.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Tobacco/ITCWHFBroApr18v2web.pdf (also available in Chinese).

This report uses ITC and GATS data to evaluate levels of awareness on the impact of tobacco use and secondhand smoke on cardiovascular health. What it shows is that in most parts of the world large proportions of the population do not know that secondhand smoke causes heart attacks/heart disease (even in countries like Australia, US and UK , 40% or more do not know or believe this). More people know about links between lung cancer and secondhand smoke than know about links between heart attack and secondhand smoke, yet exposure to secondhand smoke kills many times more people by heart attack than it does by cancer.

In many parts of the world, like China, India and Vietnam, many still don't know that SMOKING is linked to heart disease.

Please share the report with any colleagues interested, promote it in listservs and on websites, etc. We have hard copies, too (please contact me if you are interested).

This paper is part of WHF's ongoing efforts to deepen the engagement of the global heart health community in tobacco control.

The GSP resource (film, paper and resources on CVD and secondhand smoke) is an interesting complement to the report: many of you have already used them to stimulate heart health specialists to get more involved:

http://www.globalsmokefreepartnership.org/heart/data/index.html

Thanks,

Alice

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