Along with Hungary and Romania, Poland is the country where the fewest people in the EU declare to have given up smoking cigarettes. This is a huge public health challenge," emphasised participants in the Medexpress debate. - Poor countries with lower levels of education have the biggest problem with this addiction. We must not join this trend," appealed Professor Krzysztof Filipiak, rector of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie University of Medical Sciences in Warsaw.
An epidemic in the shadow of a pandemic
Poland is doing a poor job of tackling cigarette smoking addiction, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has for years described as an 'epidemic'. Approximately 7 million smokers and more than one million non-smokers who were passively exposed to cigarette smoke die each year worldwide as a result of cigarette smoking.
In Poland, around 80 000 deaths per year are recorded due to smoking. According to the European Commission's Eurobarometer, only 12% of our smokers have declared to quit. This is one of the three lowest rates in the entire EU. There are 3 specialist smoking cessation clinics in our country. Their services are used by around 800 patients per year.
Nearly 8 million Poles are active smokers and 14 million are exposed to passive smoking, or so-called second-hand smoke. Meanwhile, excess mortality in our country in 2020 was one of the highest in the EU. On average, 1/5 of all deaths per year in our country are attributed to active smoking, but also to passive smoking.
- Smoking is the single most important factor in the loss of healthy life years, and our risk of premature death and loss of quality of life is 15% higher for women and 25% higher for men than in other EU countries - emphasised Dr Grzegorz Juszczyk, Director of the National Institute of Public Health - PZH.
Further part of the article in the link: