Smoking kills two people every hour in Belgium, says cancer expert
Despite advances in medicine and a slight decline in smoking, tobacco still kills two people in Belgium prematurely every hour, cancer expert and researcher Filip Lardon says in his new book.
Smoking costs Belgium 11 billion euros annually and leads to 15,000 deaths, according to Lardon. Earlier research by Sciensano, Belgium's national public health institute, spoke of 9,000 deaths, or around one death per hour, every year. But Lardon says that number is too limited.
"Sometimes there are diseases that you cannot attribute with 100 per cent certainty to smoking, although the probability is very high," he said. "I started looking at the figures across the Benelux and ended up with two deaths per hour."
Lifetime ban
Lardon therefore calls for a lifetime ban on smoking for everyone born after 1 January 2009. "The British want that and I would introduce such a measure in Belgium too," he says. He believes this is the only way to ban smoking completely in the long term. "Today, the smoking ban among under-18s is not enforced in practice."
Lardon further notes that young people under 16 are increasingly vaping. "Every day, 50 children start smoking in Belgium, electronically or otherwise. Vaping is a stepping stone to tobacco smoking," he says. "My message is therefore harsh: we are not doing the right thing. We see the consequences of all cancer diagnoses every day."
In his book, called Two Dead Every Hour, Lardon explains what smoking and vaping does to the body, why nicotine is so addictive and how best to quit. All proceeds go to cancer research.
© PHOTO KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
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