Smoking, obesity ‘grow as world threat’
Tobacco and obesity are overtaking hunger and infectious disease as leading causes of death and illness across the developing world, an Australian expert has warned.
As globalisation had lifted millions of people out of poverty, Dr Paul Kowal said free trade agreements had allowed the rapid movement of processed food and tobacco products into the world’s poorest nations.
Many developing countries now faced new and mounting health threats from the expanding availability of fast food, soft drinks and cigarettes, he said.
“To increase development in a country, they are forced to open up to transnational corporations including tobacco corporations,” Dr Kowal said of the trend emerging in the world’s developing nations.
“And there is a clear correlation between the local presence of a tobacco company and increasing tobacco uptake.”
